AN UNFORTUNATE STATEMENT

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 24970, 12 August 1944, Page 6

AN UNFORTUNATE STATEMENT

Two pronouncements appear today on the rights and duties of the press, one by the Supreme Court and the other by the Prime Minister. It is unfortunate for Mr Fraser that he chose as the occasion for his vituperation the very day when a majority of the Full Court held that the Director of Publicity—the censorhad exceeded his powers. Jt is even more unfortunate that Mr I'rascr should have shown himself so woefully ignorant of the conduct of the affairs of responsible newspapers. It the Prime Minister were to be believed the directors of a newspaper company regard an editor as their obedient and unthinking servant. Yet Mr Erasers error can be explained : he and his Cabinet are accustomed to yield the most servile obedience to the potentates of the trade unions. He is consequently at a loss to understand that newspaper proprietors and newspaper editors are concerned for the good of the country as a whole and that they work in friendly and equal cooperation. It is Mr Fraser's misfortune that in spite of his long experience he has failed to cast off the sectional prejudices which make his party chiefs so determined to divide this country. The press on many occasions has been glad to praise the Prime Minister, but it will not fail to denounce him when, in a tit. of bad temper, he panders to the class hatred and ignorance of the extremists of his parly. His baseless criticism of the newspapers is unworthy of a Prime Minister leading a country in its fight for the privileges of democracy, of which one of the most precious is the freedom of the press. THE SECOND LEGEND

Twenty-six years ago today the German Army was judged beaten in the field by its own most competent authority. It was on August 18, 1918, that Ludendorff informed the Kaiser that victory was no longer possible. Early in October the German Government was in communication with President Wilson, and it was not until October 29 that the Navy mutinied at Kiel. The sequence of dates is important, for the revolt of the Kaiser's fleet was the first of those internal crises on which the legend of the "stab in the back" was built. "I hated the dirty revolution of 1918 from the first day," wrote Spengler in 1933, "as a betrayal by the inferior part of our people of the strong unexhausted part that had risen in 1914 because it could and would have a future. The words express an article of Nazi faith. "The Army in 1918 was undefeated," raved Hitler, with the vehemence and passion which pass for logic and fact when a people "thinks with its blood." With untiring repetition he blamed "Pacifists, Jews and Marxists" who sabotaged its victory. There was temptation in I the thought that in 1918 the armies stood within reach of victory. Once branded as the scapegoats of defeat Jews and liberals were more freely murdered. The nation itself was | made a partner in Hitler's crime, and encouraged to hope that a new bid for conquest would win success. The fifth year of that attempt upon the world is closing upon an embittered Germany. Once more m history those who took the sword are about to perish by it. Is it too much to hope that at last the German mind will recognise the inevitability of the law. All the indications are that no such realisation has yet penetrated the Prussian armour of self-esteem. Those who care for the future peace of Europe mark with grave concern the shaping of the second legend. If Hitler survives to finish the sequel to "Mein Kampf," on which he is reported to be working, he will tell the sons of the Reichswehr dead, or the German colony in Tokyo, that military treachery broke the Russian front and lost the war. Generous in its victory, he will write, National Socialism extended the right hand of fellowship to the aristocrats of the old Prussian military school. Fearful in a day of hardship, when "fanaticism" would have stood firm, stemmed the tide and won through to German triumph 1 ; they broke in spirit, fell to plotting, and planted bombs. Though purged "ruthlessly" they shattered unity on a day when victory hung upon a last united effort. Next time, they will mutter i); the Nazi underground, all generals shall be Rommels, tried, convinced and faithful. For such a purpose the reputation of Rommel lias indeed been nursed since the guns of Alamein. Given one more month of endurance, the bitter rumour will continue, and the rockets would have been ready. England would have been swept with a broom of death. There were other victory weapons of secret and appalling power, whose plans are still in safe anil trusted keeping waiting for the Man and the Hour. One more effort, free from past mistakes, and the world is Germany's.

The elimination of Hitler by Allied justice, or German disappointment, will make no vital difference, if the nucleus of military leadership remains. The general staff plans its survival. The bomb on Hitler's desk was part of that scheme. And the general staff will likewise have its legend. The Nazis will be the scapegoats. Half a dozen fundamental errors of policy and strategy will be alleged against the party. The Nazi diplomatic and intelligence service will, for instance, be singled out for special condemnation. Ribbentrop's folly will be heavily underlined. He assured the Fuehrer that Britain's pledge to Poland would not be honoured, and denied "that lonely and misunderstood genius" the five extra years his great plan for Germany needed. A few more years to build up stocks, and array the secret weapons, five more years of slumber for the decadent find no watch would be needed on the Rhine. Then the great dream of Frederick and Bismarck and Hitler would be golden reality. Tin; Delaware and the Ganges might have been Cer | man streams. Perhaps the builders

of the Fourth Reich will castigate Nazi anti-Semitism, and deplore the loss of exiled scientists. "The Allies outstripped us in invention because . But now ..." Suave diplomats and compensation to the Jews will be danger signs as real as a sudden increase in the importation of wolfram or cyanide. Gunning succeeds violence in the Prussian mind, until violence is prepared again. In an unguarded moment late in 1910 the notorious Ley remarked, "Our enemies did not know how to use their victory in 1918." He was right. The mistake must not be repeated. The second legend must be discredited at birth, and its nine lives remembered.

DEPARTMENT BLAMED So serious an indictment of the Works Department is made in the report of the Commission of Inquiry on the Fordell and Turakina tunnels that caution in accepting all its findings may be advisable. Especially is this so when the record of the department with most of its undertakings is remembered. It may be that, with the full text of the commission's report available, the public will uphold its conclusions and will join in the general regret that the record has been besmirched in these cases. More than ever before, it. is now plain that the inquiry should not have been made in the methods of the star chamber. The investigation should have been conducted by a Royal Commission, with hearings open to the public. N'ot only was the reputation of the department at stake. There was also that of the Ministry under whose auspices the works were carried out. The Fordell tunnel was started in 1936 under pressure of the need of relieving unemployment. The Turakina tunnel was completed in 1941 while the country was at war and there were other urgent calls for skilled engineers, foremen and workmen. The Government must accept responsibility. Its part was as open to question as that of its officers and was a fit subject for concurrent investigation. The public will not be satisfied that a scapegoat has been found. It is entitled to demand an assurance from the Government that in the great plans it has for public expenditure after the war there will not he a waste of funds, material and labour as at Fordell and Turakina.