REVOLT IN GERMANY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23946, 23 October 1939, Page 4

REVOLT IN GERMANY

THE CHANCES DISCUSSED GRIP OF THE GESTAPO APATHETIC. FATALISTIC NATION cFroiM Our Own Correspondent) LONDON, Sept. 19. Discussing in the Spectator the chances of revolt in Germany. Robert Powell says that while sabotage will undoubtedly reveal itself during the next few weeks in Bohemia-Moravia, the ruthless Gestapo is more active than ever, and that if its methods were severe and inhuman in peace time words fail to express its treatment of its victims in war.

“The facts of the discontent, shortage of foodstuffs, and of raw materials, etc., are all true. Not all the boasting of Goering can disguise that. But what is more important than the facts is the question how the German people interpret them and whether if this interpretation were along ‘democratic’ lines, they could or would take any decisive and collective action. Right interpretation implies an adequate knowledge of the facts, if not by the neople themselves, then at least by the press cultural leaders, etc. who will present the case to their readers “But this has been impossible in Germany for six years.” the writer proceeds. “ Not only have the facts been withheld, but deliberate misstatements have replaced them. The result is that the Gleichschaltung (co-ordination) which Goebbels initiated by terror and brutality in 1933 had produced a nation which has become apathetic and even more fatalistic than before the Nazis came to power. The average Briton’s ignorance, which brought us to last September’s Munich agreement, is as nothing compared with the abysmal igorance of the average German about what his rules want him not to know. But the German has been in the ‘ September information stage' for nearly seven years! He had been told so often that Britain and France would not fight ‘over Danzig’ that he has hardly grasped the reality even today. Are Famphlets Worth While? “In view of their ignorance of the facts and of the false interpretations so long supplied them, the Germans are not likely to accept suddenly the British-French explanation of events. When shells burst over their positions or bombs blow up their battleships, is it conceivable that they are going to believe that ‘encirclement’ is simply a peaceful or defensive action of the democracies? The dropping of pamphlets, rather than bombs, may have its value as an indication that wo could

do other things if we so desired. But it is very doubtful whether pamphletdropping will in fact achieve much. This kind of kid-glove attack smacks too much of ‘ appeasement ’ to the younger generation of Germans, who understand only the language of brute force and have yet to be convinced that the British and French mean business. (This is our price for • Munich,’ and it is not yet fully paid.)

“But even if the average German becomes convinced of the Allies’ arguments, what are the chances that effective action will follow? To-day there are over 3,000,000 Germans under arms. At the time of writing the majority of them are not in Germany. They are either in Poland BohemiaMoravia, or Slovakia. In other words, they are far from their homes and usual surroundings. . They are soldies liable to military discipline, and hardly likely to be thinking much about revolution when they are devastating other people’s territory and adding new provinces to the Reich. “ Would it be unnatural under such conditions, and remembering all the * conquests ’ which Hitler has brought them in so short a time, that if they gave a thought to the democracies, they would maintain that Britain and France could never give them what their Fuhrer has given the New Germany? Many of the workers, upon whom the hopes of an anti-Nazi revolution have been set, are among these soldiers. Thousands of others are still at work in factories and workshops. Quick Reactioi Unlikely

“It is very tempting to see much in the disillusionment which the signing of Jie German-Soviet Pact murt have brought to the ‘Old Veterans’ in the Nazi Party, to talk of the final revelation of the failure of the Fuhrer s omniscience since the period of bloodless triumphs is over, but the speed of events has given the German little time or opportunity to think; and even if he had it, his mind has been so warned that he could not quickly redact. You cannot surrender all personal responsibility under the leadership principle for years, and then expect suddenly to be able to act as a free man.

"Let us read the lesson of the last war aright as far as the question of Germany’s surrender is concerned. It was not because of any implicit faith in Wilson’s Fourteen Points_ that the Germans surrendered, nor simply j - cause of the troubles at home. Another fundamental fact was that had the war continued fighting would have taken place on German soil. Such an idea is repugnant to the German. He still holds to the doctrine of Frederick the Great, ‘Spread the cloth as far away from Germany as possible.’ And as a result, not all the pamphlets in the world will influence his action so much as the fact that the French are already across the German frontiers. “In conclusion, there is one fact which must also be mentioned. It is that. Germany is a country in which

anything is possible. The erratic • dynamism ’ which produced the Nazis may with equal swiftness turn and rend them. But, in view of all that has been said above, that eventuality is hardly likely to come about until Germany has experienced military defeat and much greater economic hardship, or the Nazi leaders quarrel among themselves —a hope so long deferred that 'it makes the heart sick indeed.”