Germany Again Looks East

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 48, 26 February 1938, Page 11

Germany Again Looks East

BAGHDAD —The German “push to the East” which was checked by the World War and suspended in the postwar years, is again becoming a factor in Near East politics, although this time the expansion is on economic rather than military lines.

While the world’s attention has been concentrated on the dramatic oratorical outbursts of Benito Mussolini about Italy’s destiny in the East, few have noticed that Germany has succeeded in doing quietly what the Duce of Italy has been trying to do. In Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan, German influence is to-day second only to British.

There is, however, a very big difference between Germany’s push now and the one which, ultimately, was one of the factors that led to the World War. While it then tried to make its way without Britain and even against Britain, now, made wiser by bitter experience, it seems more careful not to antagonize Albion, and keeps within definite limits.

Germany’s trade with Iraq has trebled during the last three years. The German colony in Baghdad has become the largest foreign colony next to the British, and economically it is at least as active as the British. Numerous commercial travelers are constantly arriving, and some are said to be interested in matters other than selling razorblades. A few Germans have even gotten jobs in the Iraq Government, in spite of the fact that the Treaty with Britain reserves first choice for British subjects. At least one such appointment, that of Director of Antiquities, did not meet with the full approval of tho British Embassy. (Something more of tho extent of the German success can be gauged from the fact that for the first time since the Iraq state was established, the Iraq Government has now sent students to study in Germany —because, as the correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor is reliably informed, they receive there substantial reductions in fees. The German Ministry was also successful last summer in organizing a large party of tourists, composed of the higher officials, to visit the Third Reich, where they were received with great honours. An important point in German propaganda here, as everywhere else, is anti-Semitism, but here this point is subordinated to au anti-Soviet line. Numerous booklets purporting to give the “inside story ” about the Soviets have been distributed, and two Baghdad papers which are particularly sympathetic towards Germany have something to say almost every day about Russia.

Sergeant: “So the burglar escaped? Did you guard all the exits?” New Constable: “Yes, sir. But we think he left by one of the entrances.”