TO BANISH WAR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20537, 11 April 1930, Page 11

TO BANISH WAR.

FRANCO-GERMAN OAIH.

BATTLEFIELDS PILGRIMACE

(Received April 10, 9.55 p.m.)

PAFIH, April 10,

Le Matin stales that (he French Foreign Minister, M. Briand, will participate in tho pilgrimage lo the. battlefields in August with 10,000 French and 10,000 German ex-servicemen.

Aft or a tour of Ihe regions where, they fought each other the men are lo lake a solemn oath to "banish war from human

< onsncnce. The president, of tie German Keielistag aI.jO will lake part..

The Berlin lorrespondent of the 'limes m a recent artielo said: —

Negotiations are well advanced for a meeting of 10.000 Reiohsbanner men with a. great gathering of French ex servicemen 011 <ho battlefield of the Chemiii des Dames in the summer. The fiuggestion for this meeting came from the German side, and is said to have originated with Heir Severing, Minister of the Interior. Ilerr Covering is a Socialist and takes a particular interest in the fteichsbanuci, Black-Red-Gold," both from its close association with his own party and because of its potential value in case tho semimilitary organisations of the Right and the Left become too exuberant. The idea behind tho proposal is, apparently, to emphasise the fundamental difference of outlook between the Roichsbanner and these other organisations. Tho Reichsbanner —like the Nationalist Stahlhelm, the National Socialist (Fascist) " Brown Shirts." and the now suppressed Communist Red Fighting Front — is nominally an ex-servicemen's organisation. Actually, the political motive is foremost in nil these bodies, and the Reichsbanner is in a sense the answer of tho political parties committed to the Republic to the organisations allied to parties, ou the Right and the Left, not yet so committed. Il is predominantly Socialist, and although its members wear uniform and manh in formation, it is less tied to military methods than the others. ](, is naturally an object, of hostility from .both flanks, and the Nationalist press is already vigorously attacking Iho proposal that Germans should meet together with Frenchmen upon the ground on which fhev once fought.