INSIDE GERMANY

New Zealand Herald, Volume 80, Issue 24760, 7 December 1943, Page 4

INSIDE GERMANY

BY GTJNNAB T. PIHL, Swedish journalist who lived in Berlin until recently.

FUTURE IS HOPELESS "TRAGIC, MISLED PEOPLE" COLLAPSE LIKELY NEXT YEAR

No. VIII. Even Nazis themselves could not give me a sensible answer when I asked them just how they intended to carry on the war. For my part I believe they will continue to fight because they have 110 alternative, and meanwhile pin hopes partly on a second "miracle of the Marne" in reverse, partly on saving diplomatic victory out of military defeat. Various rumours of the possibility or a separate peace between Russia and Germany are admittedly German propaganda to scare the Allies, but they are founded on concrete attempts by Ribbentrop and his men to reach such a settlement, which most highly placed Germans now believe to be the only possible escape road for Germany. The first rumours of separate peace moves cropped up in September, IJ4I, when the Germans had reached Stalingrad but had not yet found how difficult it was to take it, and when their armies were only 50 miles from the Maikop oil wells. The proposals were made through von Papen, the German Ambassador to Turkey, and the Turkish Ambassador in Kuibysnev, who was home on leave at that time. Roles Are Reversed Berlin clearly hoped that Moscow, scared bv the approaching spectre of defeat, would agree to a peace by which Germanv could retain all her conquests and be free to face the growing threat of the Anglo-Saxon democracies in the south and west. Other attempts have been made at various times in the past year in Kuibyshev through the Japanese Ambassador, even in Sweden; but Moscow has proved deaf to blandishments. 'loday the roles are reversed, and although it ' is Germany still who makes approaches this time it is Germany which stands on the threshold of disaster. _ Nobody need pay too much attention to these skilfully-spread scare stories from Goebbels' Propaganda Ministry. Marshal Stalin has sworn to rid Russian territory of the invader. It is unthinkable that he would conclude peace during a winter campaign in which his armies have always shown decisive superiority to the Wehrmacht. I myself, after years of study of this tragic{ misled people, feel almost as hopeless as the Germans when I consider their future, for their future deponds entirely upon the clemency of the conquering United Nations, and it is difficult even to think of mercy from the maltreated peoples of enslaved Europe. Yet to-day the broad mass of the German people want to grow cabbages in their gardens, work for good wages in . factories, and, above all, to find something in the shops to buy for the wages they earn, some little extra item of comfort they have lacked in the past months. Not Allowed to Think The Weimar Republic showed the Germans no good as Parliamentarians. The Nazi regime has made them even stupider by not allowing them to think for the past 10 years. As I see it, the most -probable political history of the Fourth Reich will be something like this:— First, a transition period of military dictatorship, for the regime following the collapse of Nazism must possess the power necessary to suppress anarchy and bring order out of chaos. Secondly, a Parliamentary two-party system on the American model—not a Weimar Republic with 37 parties gabbling all together like geese in a farmyard—on lines drawn up by the Allies, supported by enlightened German exiles like Heinrich Bruening and Joseph Wirth. Thirdly, general elections on the normal democratic model. It is my firm belief that this scheme will work in Germany provided only the Allies see to it that there exist the economic conditions necessary to its success. When I returned to Stockholm the first question I met everywhere was, "How long will the war last?" It is a hard question to answer when one reflects that in the last war the German High Command still thought as late as July, 1918. that they could fight an indecisive draw. I will try, however to give a reply. Boys Who Want Their Mothers Germany will not collapse this winter. Another and heavier blow will be needed. But next spring the cracks in the xsazi house will have widened. Ihe bombing offensive and the retreat on the eastern front will have further weakened the morale front. To sum up, it is my belief that Germany will collapse in the autumn or late winter of next year, 1944, unless a split within the Allied camp for which she hopes has occurred. Fifteen-year-old boys who want their mothers, 00-year-old men who like their newspaper and glass of beer, are beinc called up already for the factories and defence services. The food situation is growing slowly but appreciably worse. There is not sufficient fuel to warm German homes throughout the winter. In all respects German life is growing more and more synthetic. One must reckon on the fact that tins last effort of Nazism, although a formidable one, cannot last for ever. is a limit to all human endurance. Jnat limit the German nation is approaching at ever-increasing speed. (Concluded)

TEACHERS FAREWELLED TECHNICAL COLLEGE STAFF 1' ifty-four years in the teaching profession have been completed by Mr. W. E. Burley, 8.A., the retiring head of the English and general departments of the Seddon Memorial Technical College, where he has been engaged during the last 22 years. Mr. Burley began his career as an unpaid probationer in 1890 in Christchurch, where he was born, and after some years of work in primary schools lie taught in district high schools at Lyttelton. Feilding and Stratford before transferring to Auckland. At a full muster of teachers and pupils of the Technical College yesterday morning Mr. and Mrs. Burley were presented with a substantial cheque, the gift of the school and staff. The speakers were Mr. G. J. Park, principal, and Mr. E. S. Closs, head of the engineering department. Occasion was taken to make a farewell presentation to Mr. R. M. Webber, B.Sc., A.A.S.E.j A.M.N.Z.I. 13., actinghead of the science department, who has been appointed head of the engineering department of Nelson College. Mr. Webber has been 15 years on the staff of the Technical College.

RED CROSS INSPECTION Representatives of the 47 6ub-cqntres in the Auckland district were among those who made a tour of departments on the annual open day of the Auckland centre of the New Zealand Red Cross Society yesterday. The day's programme included inspections of the transport corps rooms, the Red Cross shop in High Street, the comforts depot, the joint committee prisoner of war packing department and the voluntary aid detachment rooms. At the lecture hall they heard short talks on the junior Red Cross department.