The New Zealand Times. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 28, 1923. MURDER OF RATHENAU

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 11248, 28 June 1922, Page 4

The New Zealand Times. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 28, 1923. MURDER OF RATHENAU

A tremendous (sensation has been caused in Germany by the murder of Dr Rathenau. It was, in its horror of the crime, quite equal to the sensation caused in Britain and other countries by the murder of FieldMarshal Wilson. In its bearing on politics the sensation in Germany is very much greater than the British sensation, for whereas in Britain the fear is of a political attack on the Government on the ground of faulty administration, the apprehension in Germany is of a reactionary rising probably x to be followed by a formidable civil war, with disastrous national consequences, certain whichever side may be- victorious. The apprehension ' is aggravated by the obvious danger to Europe of national disaster in Germany. That the late Dr Rathenau was a marked man, under threat of his life, is as evident as une reason why he was the object of deadly hostility. The son of the greatest of the industrial captains who had pushed his own and his country’s fortunes along the lines of opportunity opened by Bismarck’s policy of Germanic reconstruction, Dr Rathenau had inherited a great position. But this had only made him an industrial magnate. His great ability, his uent of mind, and his patriotism' had added a political force to his position as great as his industrial and financial prestige. This was seen in his writings immediately after the war, and subsequently, when the Republican Government of Herr Wirth was in extremity. After the murder of Herr Erzberger, by monarchical sympathisers, and after the suppression of hostile risings—both monarchic and socialistically extreme—the Government occupied a position of the utmost delicacy, balancing the various forces represented in tho German Parliament. Its difficulties were many, and when the question of the reparations under the Treaty of Versailles became acute about a year ago, the end came with the resignation of Herr Wirth. When the idea of forming a Government under another Prime Minister proved impracticable, . Dr Rathenau joined Herr Wirth’s party, the second Wirth Government was formed, and the weight of Rathenau’s influence and prestige maintained it in the face of all difficulties to the present hour, after Rathenau's murder. The consequence of Rathenau’s new departure was the universal respect that came to him. That was voiced by Mr Lloyd George after the murder, when he eulogised the stricken statesman as one of the ablest Ministers in Europe, who had done, and was doing, bis best to trestqre good relations between Ihis country and the other nations which had been wronged. “That,” said Mr Lloyd George, “is why ho was murdered.” Corroboration appeared immediately in tho publication of the strong condemnation which the murdered man had passed upon tho Kaiser and his entourage, fixing the responsibility on them for that most devastating episode in the world’s history. That condemnation, made under the promise of secrecy, was not known until after the death which relented it for publication. But his hostility to the monarchic faction wan well known, and the fact that he arranged to have his secret liberated—after his death—as it was hv Mr Hawkins, the American journalist, to whom the statement was made—at least makes it probable that Dr Rathenau bad given tho confidence as a. protection to Inis name in the event of the

murder, which ho had reason to believe would be attempted. The scone in the Reichstag on the announcement of tho murder tells in the same direction. It show's that many voices in that Assembly rose 1:1 accusation of leading members of the party of tho war-makers and monarchic? reactionists, the shouts of execration being followed by actual violence. Never (since the days of the historic struggles in the French Assembly of the Terror have such scenes occurred in any Parliament. Outside the Reichstag there is the same feeling, as voiced in the Socialist determination to hold a meeting of horror and protest against the murder. To complete the picture of German disturbance the cables have given us a flood of definite statements, rumours, and conjectures of things indicating the conspiracy out of which the murderers moved to their dastard, iy and well-planned objective. These give sinister darkness to recent statements of monarchic plottings, chief of which was the report of Ludendorff’s proclamation of last week appealing to the party of monarchic reaction. Further significance is given to all those by the statement that the murder of Rathenau has removed the only rival who was formidable to Herr fe'tinnes, the financial and industrial magnate, who has been so much in the publio eve since the struggle began against the Versailles Treaty. It was the Stinnes influence which brought about the German Treaty with the Russian Bolsheviks, so fatal to the proceedings at Genoa. That this treaty paved the way for monarchic reaction in Germany, with its pan-German reflex, is the strong suspicion of every statesman in Europe. “That is why he was murdered,” covers apparently a considerable deal of ground. Is the peace of Europe threatened? The answer depends on what may happen in Germany in consequence of this murder. If reaction triumphs, then, history will repeat itself, for war will follow a sensational murder in 1922, as'war followed a sengational murder in 1914. That the murder of 1914 shall not have any desolating sequel, the German Government is determined, so far as lies in the power of that Government. So much may he gathered from its declaration of martial law. It is a determination to scotch the snake of reaction, on whose success the devastation of the world depends. But the conditions in Germany are not the conditions of 1914. The fierce light of publicity plays on the scene, not the mysterious darkness of the year of the Great War. It plays on a Germany divided into perhaps several sections, of which, however, the reactionary is the smallest and most unpopular, not the Germany in which nearly all were united behind the Hohenzollerns, the Junkers, and the Pan-Germans. The Germa/iv of to-day is not the Germany' of 1914, intoxicated with its marvellous commercial, military, and naval expansion, hut a Germany sobered by defeat, chastened by disappointment, nursing a sombre fury against the men who flung the Fatherland into disaster down from the proudest position held by any nation since the eruption of Napoleon’s armies over Europe. To complete the contrast, we have Lord Northcliffe’s picture of “Happy Germany,” as given in cable messages yesterday. Lord Northcliffe is an acute and competent observer, who, whatever errors he play make in policy, is reliable in the best sense of contemporary journalism. On the whole, there is reason to believe that the murder of Dr Rathenau will not cause Germany to suffer more than the loss the unprincipled assassins have in. flicted.