IN GERMANY TO-DAY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23618, 30 March 1940, Page 5 (Supplement)

IN GERMANY TO-DAY

THE representative of a famous Swiss newspaper has been travelling through Germany to lind out what the people are really thinking. He lias come to the conclusion that there is more anxiety than enthusiasm about the war and that the Nazi doctrine is not standing up well to the strain of so colossal an undertaking as a great war. It is true, he writes, that tho Nazi soldiers are still enthusiastic believers in Hitler and his creed, but those who are left to carry on at homo are not so sure that all is well. Feeling Among Workers The Nazis aro a minority in the country, but they are still so powerful and efficient that there is no immediate likelihood of a revolution against the regime. Yet the Swiss found that dissatisfaction with tho working of the bureaucracy existed all over Germany, especially in the south. In the towns; especially he found considerable feeling among the workers against tho hosts of officials and party leaders who

had taken steps to protect themselves without considering others. There were few gas-masks ancl air-raid shelters for the public, while maximum effort was demanded from the working classes, who were already exhausted by their efforts during the many crises preceding the war. For some time the working classes have been comparing the methods of Hussia and Germany and finding how great is their resemblance. They were resentful of the dictatorship methods of both, and barking back to the slogans against capitalism which the Nazis themselves formerly used._ In the South there was a revival of tho federal idea in opposition to the centralisation (which is actually the Prussianisation) of all Germany, while there was a vague hope for a new kind of democratic State which did not rely on mass movements and mass organisation. Everywhere this Swiss observer found strong resentment against the Nazi disregard for many fundamental human rights, but lie found no evidence of a corning revolution against Hitler. On the contrary, the resentment of the British blockade was likely to make the war even popular for a time. The Swiss observer, however, discovered enough secret dissatisfaction

More Anxiety Than Enthusiasm About the War throughout Germany to convince liira that a total defeat of Germany would result in the ready welcome of Russian ideas in the political confusion which would prevail. German Mother's Letter We have come upon another account, this time an authentic letter from a German. The letter was published in a periodical known as The True Germany, and the German mother who wrote it complains that everything she wishes to buy is clear, and that it does not last long. Her chief concern seems to be for the health of her children who. she says, get tired with so much marching, and are never able to havo enough food. "If she forbids them to march," she writes, "she might have a visit from the Nazis, and the end would be that her husband would lose his job." This letter from a German mother goes on: "flow can we live? Our savings were used up long ago. everything has become so dear, and there is 110 end to the collections. There is 110 actual scarcity of food, but it is all very dear, and our income simply does not allow us to live as we used to. Then they spy on our cooking at every chance, worm out of us what we arc having, crossexamine the children on what they get to eat and whether we follow the party recommendations for menus. It is a fact that any denunciation is enough to bring an inspection of our larder, and woe to anyone who has a few coffee beans or a couple of eggs too much. We live mainly 011 potatoes and smoked fish; meat comes more and more rarely to the table.

Resurrection Pie "We are living on scraps; we have to take the barley from the mid-day barley broth and mix it with half a cabbage, some leeks, and some carrots. I stew this with added water and bits of potato. And this is expected to mako tile children strong and healthy! Wo save every particle of cheese, rind and all; I use it for the 'cookery marvel,' a new German invention. I cook all tho scraps of vegetables and potatoes with a thick yellow sauce, put this into tho greased 'cookery marvel,' spread tho whole thickly with grated cheese, and bake it; that is how I get our favourite 'resurrection pie.' "Have you heard of 'German superfine sago,' made from potatoes? Flour for puddings is also being prepared from potatoes. On an average we have meat twice a week, fish three times, smoked or fried; we have potatoes at the mid-day and evening meals; we get few vegetables. "Sometimes, when I am alone, it is a relief to get away into a corner and have a good cry."