MODERN GERMANY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21989, 26 June 1933, Page 8

MODERN GERMANY

THE GROWTH OF HITLERISM COMMENTS BY MR W. P. MORRELL Some interesting comments on current affairs in Germany were made last evening by Mr W. P. Morrell, a lecturer in history at the University of London, when in conversation with an Otago Daily Times representative. Mr Morrell, who is the son of Mr W. J. Morrell, is revisiting Dunedin after an absence of 10 years. Mr Morrell said that to an increasing extent during the past few years British opinion had been coming over to the view that the Germany of Dr Stresemann and Dr Bruening wag anxious to be a good neighbour, and was entitled to a sympathetic consideration of its _ grievances, whether in the matter of disarmament or reparations. The French, although a more moderate policy had been pursued by the Governments of Harriot and Daladier, were more dubious. It was an open question whether the attitude 'of France was a major factor in the growth of the Hitler movement. he thought that the main cause of Hitlerism had been the economic depression, and the feeling of bitterness, and almost of despair that filled the minds of young Germans, particularly of . the middle classes, who were unable to get work. In the work for Hitlerism they found an outlet for their energies, and in the attack of Hitler upon the Jews, which produced a deplorable impression outside Germany, they gave expression to a feeling that, whilst most Germans had suffered financially from the war and its aftermath—inflation—a few men, some of them Jews, had benefited financially. In the rather nebulous programme of Hitlerism that found scope for their curious sentimentalism and also for the national ambitions which seemed to appeal so strongly to the modern German, Hitler and some of his associates were undoubtedly masters of propaganda, but they had also undoubtedly promised many things which they could not perform. Whether they were practical enough to see the limitations imposed upon them by the facts, and whether they were strong enough to reconcile the German people to its inevitable disappointments, remained to be seen.