SPECTRES OF WAR

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 20 September 1932, Page 7

SPECTRES OF WAR

GAS MASKS SOLD. WITH FELT HATS IN GERMANY SIGNS OF THE IRON HEEL LONDON, Bth September. In the whole extent of Europe, the most astonishing political event —and to those who have the cause of peace at heart, the most disquieting event —is the renaissance of the militarist Junker rulers in Germany. That the moderate Republican leaders who have had charge of the German foreign policy since the war were the real leaders of the German people, many good judges, specially in France, have genuinely doubted. The great rally of the German “Steel Helmets,’ in the presence of the exCrown Prince and war-time generals has its counter-part in the streets of Berlin, where a hatter’s diop displays gas masks priced “to suit all sizes.” Abroad, as in France, the .eeent Governmental changes in Germany have bred a fear that the old German military caste is preparing to throw oil' the shackles of the Peace Treaty of Versailles. At home, the Republicans, from the more sober-minded Democrats down to the most ardent “Reds” fear that the old ruling caste is paving the way to the complete overthrow of the Republican Constitution and defiance of the elected Reichstag by •force of arms. To the Republicans, the rush of events in the last month; from the arbitrary nomination of the notorious von Papon as Chancellor by President vru Hiiijj.nburg, down to the snub which von Hindenburg administered to ihe new Reichstag’s speaker - when lie told him to stay whine he was, in Ber-lin-—have all portended the overthrow of democratic institutions. Day by cay, the Monarchists rnd the o'd tiding ('ass are emboldened to fresh self assertions. The assembly of the Steel Helmets, on whose support von Pa pen can rely if the Reichstag dares to challenge his authority, amounted to ail open acknowledgement by the arbitrary rulers of the Reich and of Prussia, of the Steel Helmets’ place in tin* new scheme of Government.