SAAR PLEBISCITE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22498, 16 February 1935, Page 11

SAAR PLEBISCITE

HOW THE NEWS WAS RECEIVED ATMOSPHERE OF POLLING DAY HERR HITLER’S RESTRAINED SPEECH. (From Oub Own Correspondent.) LONDON, January 19. Three weeks ago there was a public meeting in the -Saar of anti-Nazi residents, at which it was estimated 50,000 were present. If 50,000 had the courage to attend that meeting, it was considered that a very much larger number would vote for the status quo. It was probably a case of discretion being the better part of valour, for only 46,000 votes were cast for the continuation of the League of Nations regime. It is true, however, that if there had been no anxiety about the discipline which the people will undergo under Herr Hitler’s dictatorship the vote in favour of a return to Germany would have been even greater. On the day before the plebiscite a correspondent wrote: “So close has the network of organised intimidation become that propaganda for the status quo in the Saar has almost ceased to reach the public. Throughout the Saar posters and manifestos of the German front are conspicuous, but hardly any posters recommending the status quo are to be seen —in some districts not one is discoverable. “This is,only one of the outward symptoms of an organised intimidation that is as systematic as it is ruthless. Saarbtucken itself is almost like an oasis, and those who observe the : plebiscite from here get a very faint impression of what is really going on.. In the smaller towns and villages there is a real feeling of terror. Even the most inexperienced observer —if he is not abtuse or biased —who enters this atmosphere becomes aware of its nightmarish quality.” LAVISH EXPENDITURE. The lavish expenditure of money by the Nazis is shown by an incident reported by Reuter. Among the voters was a woman who had had her expenses paid from China. In order to get her to the Saar in time, a special aeroplane, .was chartered for her from Berlin, and special permission to fly over the Saar was obtained from the governing commission, as ordinary flying is at present prohibited over the territory. There was no doubt that voters were impressed by the fairness and secrecy of the organisation set up by the League as far as the .actual voting was concerned, but that pressure was exercised on the voter until the very moment he entered the polling station was fairly obvious. At Homburg, for instance, a pugnaciouslooking person stood outside the polling station and made a point of greeting every new arrival with the Hitler salute.

SCENES IN SAARBRUCKEN. The declaration of the poll was a signal for an outburst of rejoicing by the victors which grew in fervour throughout the day and reached a remarkable pitch in the evening, writes The Times correspondent at Saarbrueken. The first manifestation was the appearance in every town and village of the territory of thousands of red, white, and black, and swastika flags, which filled the streets with a luxuriance of colour. The small towns and villages near the German frontier were even more lavishly decorated than Saarbrueken. The call for a public holiday issued by the Deutsche Front leaders 'was obeyed everywhere, and the streets were full of lighthearted and, on the whole, orderly crowds. The only hardworked people in the Saar were the bellringers. At intervals during the day gay chimes sounded from the church towers, most of which flaunted long Nazi banners. The streets of Saarbrueken, gaily decorated, were thronged all day with excited*people, who exchanged Nazi salutes and congratulated one another on their return to the Fatherland. Almost every motor car was plastered with Nazi emblems and festooned with strings of swastika flags. The young men and girls of the Deutsche Front and its junior branch, the Hitler Jugend, were out in force, and their marching columns filled the streets. Detachments of Nazi boys, varying in age from 12 to 18 years or so, marched briskly from place to place under the command of youthful leaders, while the bystanders greeted them with lifted arms and shouts of “Heil!” STREET EFFIGIES. The assumed demise of the Einheitsfront was celebrated in various ways, some humorous, some_ grisly. A band of Nazi youths carrying knotted ropes paraded past the Communist headquarters in the Herbertstrasse. A group of young men arrayed , in- top Bats- and slightly intoxicated wheeled a coffin labelled “ Status Quo ” through the streets and invaded various cafes, in which some of the customers were not amused. A strawstuffed “corpse,” adorned with a red scarf and the three arrows of the Einheitsfront, was paraded round the town suspended from a gallows rigged in a lorry. An equally artificial and very dead Communist in a cloth cap was dragged along the ground behind a car covered with Herr Hitler’s bunting, OVER THE WIRELESS. The announcement of the result produced an unusual drama over the wireless atmosphere. The announcement from Saarbrueken was scarcely finished when the German national broadcast switched across to Neustadt, and the strident tones of Herr Burckel filled the air, Herr Hitler’s “ Special Commissioner for Saar Affairs,” who is also Nazi regional leader for the district adjoining the Saar, addressed himself to “My Fuhrer” (Herr Hitler was listening at his country home at Berchtesgaden, in Bavaria), and spoke in the manner of a soldier reporting to his senior officer. The result, said Herr Burckel, in his most forceful and graphic manner, was clear and unambiguous, and the world

should understand it. It resounded across the frontiers, declaring a thousand-year-old conflict to be finally closed, proclaiming to the world that “ the Rhine is a German stream, not Germany * frontier.”. Two neighbour realms wished to achieve tranquillity and in honour to serve the peace of the world. There had been deeply moving proofs of German loyalty. A woman had fallen dead In a polling station. “ She was able to pledge herself to Germany; this happiness broke her heart.” Two dying men, whose hearts would similarly have broken if they had been unable to vote, were carried on stretchers to the ponce station, “ where they fulfilled, in tsars, this, possibly their last, duty! " • “ Such, my Fuhrer, are the Saarlanders! ” cried Herr Burckel in conclusion. “Their dream is Germany! Their faith is Germany! Their loyalty >• Germany; Adolf Hitler, be thou their protector. For thou art Germany! Our Germany! THE PUHRER’S ADDRESS. Then the glistening nation heard the voice of their dictator. \ After praising the endurance of the Saarlanders, and welcoming them ae “eons of our people and citizen* of the new German Reich," Ilerr Hitler said:'' "It is a nroud feeling to have been chosen by Providence as the representative of a-nation. In these days and coming weeks you, my Germans in the Saar, are representatives of the German nation and Reich,” After enjoining them further to maintain “ the bigest discipline” until the final reunion with the fatherland, Herr Hitler continued: “We all wish to see in this act of January 13 a first and decisive step towards a gradual reconciliation of tho*e who, by fate and human Imperfection*, were thrown 20 years ago into,the moat fearful and fruitless conflict of all time. Your decision, German compatriot* in the Saar, gives me the possibility to-day, as our sacrificial historical contribution to the so necessary pacification of Europe, to declare that after the completion of your reunion the German Reich w}ll raise no further territorial claims against France. I think we thus expresa our acknowledgment to the for the loyal appointment, in conjunction with France and ourselves, of this plebiscite and its subsequent fulfilment. Our common wish is that this proud end to so unhappy an injustice should contribute towards a pacification of European humanity. Great and inflexible as i« our resolve to achieve and secure equal rights for Germany, we are just as ready not to withhold ourselves from those tasks which are necessary to produce a genuine solidarity of the nations in face of the present danger# and needs.”