THE NAZI REGIME

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23858, 12 July 1939, Page 3

THE NAZI REGIME

ENCIRCLEMENT “DRUM" PEOPLE ON THE MARCH SURVEY OF GERMANY TO-DAY Herr Hitler is said to have told a friend recently that, while he had marched into Prague in his boots, he would enter Warsaw in his slippers, stated Hugh Carleton Greene, till recently chief 'Berlin correspondent of the Daily Telegraph, writing in that paper last month. This remark is probably an accurate guide to the Fuhrer’s present state of mind. With the peasant shrewdness that characterises all his actions in foreign affairs, he knows that he must tread carefully if he is not to precipitate the war on two fronts which he has always feared. He has a much firmer grasp of realities than his Foreign Minister (Herr von Ribbentrop), who has built up his career on a hitherto successful application of wishful thinking.

Ribbentrop and Goering

Since the conclusion of the AngloTurkish security pact there has been a certain decline in the influence of Herr von Ribbentrop, who failed to give the Fuhrer an’’ warning of this event. At the same time, however, Field-marshal Goering, who must still be regarded as an exponent of moderation—as “ moderation ” is understood in present-day Germany —-has also lost Herr Hitler’s ear The Fuhrer has withdrawn into himself and now places his chief trust in his own instinct.

But what of the German people on whose moral Herr Hitler must, i. the last resort, rely? Though the statement may cause surprise, I do not hesitate to say that moral has never been better, from the point of view of the present regime, during the five and a-hal years I worked in Germany and followed the ur'* and down of public opinion. The fate of the Sudeten Germans last autumn left the German man in the street completely indifferent. The more the German press shrieked about the sufferings sf Germans at the hands of the Czechs, the more incredulous the average German working man became. By the time the Munich conference brought the crisis to a temporary conclusion the German public, which had awakened at the last minute to the danger of war, was emotionally limp and only able to appreciate the fact that peace had been preserved..

Blunder of the Pogroms

The pogroms of last November which were thoroughly approved of by Herr Hitler but not by Fieldmarshal Goering, brought the Nazi regime to the lowest pitch of discredit inside Germany that it has ever reached. If on that raw November day whpn the mobs, acting under Government orders, were wrecking Jewish property and not infrequently spilling Jewish blood, the general commanding the Berlin district had called out the troops to clear the streets and restore order, he would have lit a flame throughout Germany that nothing could have put out. One saw then in a blinding instant that, given the time and the man,, even something as firmly founded as the Nazi regime seems to be might disappear in a puff of smoke. Germany awoke , from the orgy thoroughly, ashamed of herself, and shame is a dangerous sentiment for those who arouse It. Most ashamed of all were many of the people who had watched the wrecking with satisfaction.

At the beginning of this year moral was no better. The desire to be rid of the Nazi regime at all costs had gone so far that m January I was told by several serving German officers that “ there is no point in our fighting a victorious' war ” —a defeatist attitude that would previously have been almost inconceivable in the German officers’ corps. Then came March, Herr Hitler’s seizure of Bohemia and Moravia, and a miraculous change. It was a very gradual change. At first the German public displayed its usual apathy and was not particularly interested in the news that Herr Hitler had slept—or, at least, spent the night, for the Fuhrer suffers from insomnia—in the Hradjin Castle in Prague, Then, as the days passed, Germany began to realise that her leader had got away with the biggest coup of his career. The country swung into line behind him, forgetting the pogroms and even, to some extent, the every-day hardships which are usually the chief topic of conversation between those who trust one another.

The changed outlook was most marked in Austria. The Austrians have always hated the Czechs, and they were delighted that they should be swallowed up in their turn. Besides, Vienna was no longer in danger from Czech bombing planes. Only last January some Vienna business men visiting Berlin told their Prussian colleagues that revolution in Austria was imminent. This was, perhaps, an exaggeration, but no Austrian would be responsible for a similar exaggeration to-day. Triumph of Propaganda Again, the “ encirclement ” propaganda which is now an every-day feature of the German press has had an undeniable success. I have been astonished to find many German friends who, during the last few years have expressed a sturdy disbelief in everything they have read in their newspapers, quoting articles from the Voelkischer Beobachter at me almost word for word. The belief in “ encirclement ” is something bred in the bone, and it would be a full-time task for a British Ministry of Information to counteract it. w Most important of all, the German oeople are delighted that Poland Is now the immediate enemy. The conclusion of the pact of friendship with Poland in January, 1934 was one of Herr Hitler’s most unpopular actions, and its denunciation on April 28 last brought really sincere applause from the docile members of the Reichstag. This hatred of Poland means—and it is vital that this point should be understood —that a war over Danzig or the Polish “ corridor,” even though the result of the most flagrant German aggression, would be fought by a united German nation. There might be some sabotage by Communists, but there would be no general rising against Herr Hitler—at least for a lone time. Emergency Food Stores But what of the economic situation and its effects on German morale? The food shortage, of which, in my opinion, a great deal too much has been made, grows worse by very gradual stages. This means that the people as a whole have become inured to a certain degree of hardship.

and that in the event of war they would, at Least in the early stages, take even more stringent rationing as a matter of course. Accumulation of huge reserves of food stuffs for war-time purposes is probably more responsible for the shortage than the policy of restricting imports to the necessary minimum. Field-Marshal Goering has publicly proclaimed that he is the biggest border in Germany. Exact estimates are, of course, impossible, but it is generally thought that about six months’ supplies of grain, meat, edible oils and other food stuffs have now been collected and stored at various centres throughout the Reich.

The success with which the “encirclement ” drum is now being beaten by Dr Goebbels has made it easier to persuade the German people that the “aggressive” plans of the democracies rather than the policy of their own Government have made it necessary for them to tighten their belts. But public opinion may change again, and the fact that Germany might in the end be the loser in the present “ war of nerves ” is a consideration which Herr Hitler cannot ignore. Lull in Church Dispute

Another factor making, at least temporarily, for increased national unity is the lull in the struggle with the Catholic and Evangelical churches. Not wishing to split the country at a critical moment, Herr Hitler, with characteristic shrewd ness, has given a “go slow” order to his more impatient lieutenants. There is now less interference with churches than at any time since'the earliest days of the Nazi regime. Admittedly Herr Hitler has remained inactive for a few w :ks. but any suggestion in the British r French press that he has been intimidated by the strength of the combination which has been formed to resist aggression would have the worst possible effect on the international situation, for prestige means a great deal to the i'uhrer. It should not be forgotten that the Czechoslovak crisis last year was also interrupted by a period of calm during the summer months. What, then, of the immediate future?- There is every reason to think that Herr Hitler still believes in the possibility of winning a ghtning war if he chooses the moment to strike with the uncanny instinct which he has previously displayed Whatever orders he gave there would be no opposition from the am.*’ leaders General von Brauchitsch, Commander-in-Chief cf the Army, who in East Prussia gained a certain reputation as an anti-Nazi, and General Keitel, Chief of the. Supreme Command, are no\ as ready to conform to the Fuhrer s will as the former Minister of War. Field-marshal von Blomberg. General Beck, the brilliant Chief of the General Staff, who always tried to act as a brake has been replaced by General Haider, a 100 per cent. Nazi. Fuhrer and Peace Front Moreover, Herr Hitler has been proved right too frequently when his military advisers have opposed hi plans. The Czech coup last March finally' established his complete ascendancy over the Prussian officers’ corps. The future of Europe thus depends almost entirely on the mind of one man, Herr Hitler, for in the view* of Berlin, Signor Mussolini has become little more than the Gauleiter of Italy, who may express his misgivings, ‘but must ultimately o£ey orders. For five and a-half years I have tried to understand the mind of the mysterious man who rules Germany to-day. My conclusions are that while hostility to. Poland is the motive uppermost in the Fuhrer s heart, he would as a good tactician strike without hesitatior at any point in the peace front where he thought, he could discern a weakness.