BRIGAND KING'S OWN STORY.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XLIV, Issue 14706, 5 June 1920, Page 6

BRIGAND KING'S OWN STORY.

I (I3y A. A. Davidson.)

Here, at Klingenthal. one conies face to face with Max Hoelz, who ,froin be- ■ ing a Communist leader, has by force of circumstances become a bandit chief. Accompanied by an English colleague, I havo come from , Plauen —passing southward of Falkenstein, with its : baronial castle, which till tho past week end Max had made his stronghold—to Klingenthal, to see this adventurer, this astonishing anachronism. For the first few miles the journey was uneventful; but presently we came to the village of Markneukircheii (where the fanious_ Saxon ,musical instruments' are made). Here wo were summarily held up by Hoelz's outposts. Armed with rifles and wearing the red ] Srmlet, Hoelz's outer guards asked our business and whether we were armed. They seemed to be considerably impressed when we said we wished .to speak with none other than Hoelz himself! They all seemed rather excited. They are somewhat scoundrelly in appearance ; and one missed amongst . theiii that consciousness of public support which was so noticeable, for instance, amongst tho' Communists in the Ruhr Valley. However, Hoelz's wnr- ; dens became very polite, and they passed the word along the line tr> let us pass. After making several delicate in■juiries as to whether our car was likely to be commandeered by Hoelz, we passed on. Soon wo entered a narrow valley which cuts through the Erz-bedirge—-the "Ore Mountains" of tho SaxonBohemian borderland. Through scenery of the loveliest foot- -■ hill description, we mounted steadily. There was a curious feeling as of climbing up to a highland eyrie, the proper home of such an armed bandit as Max, the Black Eagle of Vogtland. Klingenthal —which. like Markneukircheii, ?s noted for its musical instruments —is a beautiful little village, but a rather discordant note is struck at the sight of the armed men in it. Hoelz, the brigand king, has installed 1 himself in an hotel; luit.we found lifm drinking coffee in a neighboring cafe. He is a man of fine appearance, weilgroomed, and with that intense looi. in his deep-set- eyes which marks i iuzealot. On learning that we were Eng i.-,'! journalists, he addressed us in l.ng • lish. He worked for a year in London as an engineer. But soon his talk fell back into German. He claims that 500(1 men :uv enrolled in his army, and that- tinworkers to a man are behind hnn. 'Now both of those statements t-hoii'J be taken at a generous discount. Anyway, Hoelz admits that he has absolutely no hope of success. Ho disclaims any idea of < stablisbing "Communism." He says i: : enrolled his troops with the simple object of overthrowing the Reichswehr. Owing to the hopelessness of his cause, Max will noL light, he says, but lie will either cross over the Bohemian (Czccho-Slovakian) _ frontier (which actually passes through the village'* and surrender his arms to the Czechish trops, or he will quietly "dissolve" and hide amongst the working classes, as bandit kings —and even real kings, such as Alfred the Great— have done before now. As Max does not intend doing anything beyond saving himself, his who!'movement becomes, of course, one of sheer plunder. His acts of incendiarism and arson committed against private peopie he calls "reprisals against the Rcichs- | wehr." Levies, imposts and extortions which he has visited upon towns and magnatees that have fallen victim to him he calls "contributions." Such weekly "grants" as he lias wrung out of the communities of Plauen and Falkenstein he calls "receipts." And his seizure of and red misrule and revelry in the baronial castle of Falkenstein he would term the pitality" of the Freiherr of that ilk. Even here in little Klingenthal Max Hoelz has ordained that the village must pay him one million marks (which would be £50,000 in other days). • What condemns Max as a political leader is that, knowing he must soon surrender or hide, he neverthless continues to allow his force to batten upon the country for which he knows he can promise (or, at any rate, -perforin) nothing. Still, let lis be fair, even to Hoelz. When he ruled in Plauen and Falkenstein, lie brojitdit food supplies—although by forced credits—and he saw that the people were fed. He meant bis movement to be part of a much larger one; and he seems, like Alexander the Great, to recognise himself that the smallness of the dimensions of his zone of conquest has inevitably resulted in lowering the tone of his army. Seriously, an earnest, honest, and educated Communist as I believe him to be, he knows that he is. faced personally with two dangers. There is danger from the Reichswehr, and, what is more, he is under no illusions as to the danger which may confront him from his own troops —who may suddenly turn against him because of the sharp measures he adopts against their propensity to loot.