A BANDIT IN HIS CASTLE.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XLIV, Issue 14703, 2 June 1920, Page 2

A BANDIT IN HIS CASTLE.

(By A. A. Davidson.) There are elements of picturesqueness about Max Hoeltz, wiio is dominating Yogtland. in Saxony, of which the lace city of'Plauen is the centre. His story, so far as recorded, smacks of mediaeval romance and bold, bad barons and their ways. For Max sits m Falkenstein Castle, which is in the industrial city of tho same name, and establishes his authority over the city ' and the surrounding country. He levies toll upon those who are "subject"-' to liim,-and ho finances himself and his army by fining merchants who were guilty of being war profiteers anything from 50,000 to 100,000 marks. In return, his foes—principally com- I posed of the Government of Saxony— I have put a price of 30,000 marks upon j his head. But though the- trappings , are old, Max's aims arc exceedingly prescnt-dav ones. For" Max is a Communist, who is leading a ''Red army" in Falkensstein and the neighborhood, and is meeting with a considerable amount of success, so long as Government troops are not used against him. His mastery in Falkenstein seems to l.c complete, and now comes the news that he has captured the infantry barracks and the railway station in Plauen itself; and hr.s already held up and searched a train proceeding from Munich to Berlin. Though the scale on which these operations are conducted is wholly ridiculous, the enterprise vetthrows a. vivid light upon the- confusion in Germany, and the chances offered to adventurers. Max. Hoeltz is receiving the fines levied by hint, find justifies them by saying that he takes them as security that his opponents ideally disarm. He stoutly denies the charge that his "Red army" is a band of robbers; arid he insists upon the purity of its motives in "fighting." Though he modestly" admits that he has no thoughts , of. attacking the Imperial Reichswelir, his doings are attracting a considerable amount of notice; and already one 1 reads- of comparisons between his campaign and what happened recently in ■ the Ruhr valley; while various Workers' Executive Committees support him. and various others reject him and ell his works. Sections of the Conservative Press fear his demagogic powers, while the extreme Radical Press opposes him on the ground that his independent, action is breaking the unity of front which. i:> essential to revolutionary success. Tn the meantime Max goes upon his way undeterred by criticism, levving his fines lipon ■ profiteers, haranguing the down-trodden, heading no doubt straight for bloodshed when the Imperial troops finally move against him, and showing how easy it is to form armed bands of firebrands in a country which is badly disorganised.