MODERN GERMANY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23341, 5 November 1937, Page 6

MODERN GERMANY

COMMENTS ON PRESENT . CONDITIONS VIEWS OF IMPARTIAL OBSERVERS ALLEGED MISREPRESENTATION Interesting views on modern Germany, gleaned from recent visits to that much-discussed country, were expressed at the League of Nations Union's "At Home " last evening by Mrs J. A. Hanan and Dr W. Benham, who were the guests of the evening. The two speakers appeared to be agreed upon the point that the Hitler regime had been greatly beneficial to the national and domestic life of Germany, whatever Nazi foreign policy might be doing for Europe. Dr Benham considered that there was a sort of conspiracy of misrepresentation in many countries with regard to Germany, remarking that everything that could be twisted to the discredit or disadvantage of the country was seized upon, while similar things in France and other countries were allowed to pass unnoticed.

Mrs Hanan spoke of Berlin as she saw it under the guidance of the British Embassy and official hosts, while Dr Benham discussed the country as he found it travelling about among the common people, staying at the type of hotel frequented by nationals, using their restaurants, and generally avoiding the customary haunts of tourists. Mrs Hanan Dresented a picture of a Berlin that had been cleaned up by Herr Hitler and shorn of many of its vices and faults. Many Changes

She said she had been told by Englishwomen, who had been long resident in Germany, that until Herr Hitler commenced cleaning up the Augean stables many people were ashamed to confess that they belonged to Berlin. Now all that was changed, and Germany realised that it was all the work of the Fuhrer. Both Mrs Hanan and Dr Benham remarked a generally happy and contented appearance in the people encountered, although the former said it was very noticeable that a great deal of unrest existed among the intelligentsia as a result of what they regarded as the curtailment of their personal liberty. Dr Benham drew some interesting analogies between his own observations and the news he had read from time to time in newspapers about food shortages in Germany. Everywhere he went the people looked well-nourished, neatly dressed and to all appearances perfectly happy. Dr Benham agreed entirely with Mrs Hanan's view that the German people as a whole had a great affection and respect for the English, and were anxious that friendly relations should be maintained with the British people. Mrs Hanan said that Germany's great fear at the moment was Russia. The people lived in terror of the Russian menace, and Germany had been greatly depressed over the negotiation of a trade agreement between Russia and Great Britain. Labour Camps Referring to the general habit of presenting German conditions in the worst possible light Dr Benham spoke of the" labour and concentration camps of which so much was heard. The impression was given, he said, that these were penal organisations of some kind which were not to the credit of the country. The concentration camps where Jews and other people who were officially regarded as undesirables, were interned were no different from the internment camps that existed in Britain and even in New Zealand during the war, and as for the labour camps, he thought that people should remember that they were to be found even to-day all over New Zealand in connection with the construction of roads and railways. Of course they were called Public Works camps here, but actually they were just the same as the camps in Germany.

Dr Benham said that his visit to Germany, notwithstanding that it occupied hardly more than a week, had taught him to discount and discredit a great deal of what he read in the newspapers about the country. He had also learnt that Berlin was not Germany any more than London was England, and he considered that too much notice should not be taken of the headlines of which Berlin was so often the subject. Germany was something very much bigger, and greater and better than too many newspaper articles were inclined to make it out to be.

The speakers were accorded a hearty vote of thanks.