Patea & Waverley Press. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1939 UPHEAVAL IN GERMANY

Patea Mail, 24 November 1939, Page 2

Patea & Waverley Press. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1939 UPHEAVAL IN GERMANY

THE dav is not far distant when

the German people will begin to realise that they have been living not in a tool’s paradise, for life in Germany of recent yeans cannot by any stretch of imagina-' tion be called a Paradise, but in a •fool’s country, where people have been fooled by Hitler. , The German people will begin by asking themselves what has Hitler done for them ! In wind: way has the annexation of Austria, Hungary. C/.eeho-Slovakia and Poland 'bench tied them? Arc they 3>rospcrous? Arc they happyi? The rationing of food and the heavy taxation necessary, for the upkeep of the huge war machine is a complete answer to the first question, ami the know-) ledge that many of their fathers, brothers, and other male relatives and friends will meet the late of the many hundreds ot thousands who fell" in the previous Groat War, must he the aiis-wm- to the last. The German people must have asked themselves over and over again why they should be called upon to endure their present misery when it is possible for them to lie Mends with all mankind. No sane BHtisJj person wishes to he at enmity wiin | the German people. There not one single reason why Grunin should be at enmity with the German people, but on tne olnei hand there arc a thousand andj one reasons why the two conn-| tries should live at peace. We boast of the fact that wo are or the Anglo-Saxon race, and this or Itself should cause us to live at peace with Germany. The German people are beginning Go realise Hiis fact more and more each day. : and if it can be made clear to | them that when -Britain wins the present war they will ’be given a pymdmn which they at present do not a«<l that Huy will be treated likd Pjluw Bntish mb-. •jects. they will W vp and dey inand peace. What W weeded at the present Hmo w for the German people to be Impressed witn the desire, of the British people,

not to eruf'.h them with a huge war indemnity at the close of the ■war, but to hell) them to Jive more prosperous and happy lives, in as free an atmosphere as the British people themselves. Britain is not a tyrant, and as far as freedom goes, there is no freedom to be found in any country greater than that to be found under the British flag. Only recently a South, African, who fought against Britain in the Boer War expressed his whole hearted appreciation of the freedom they one and all enjoyed under the British tlag, a freedom they did not think any conquering nation would give another. This of itself is a complete answer to the very silly statement of Herr von ’Ribbentrop to the effect that “there is no part of the world where the British flag is not warring against the will of the people in question, and where deeds of violence, robbery and lies do not mark the path of British Imperialism.” The contrast between the freedom of British rule and the tyranny of Hitlerism is so great th a I when this is brought home to the German people there should he a great upheaval ainst a continuance of the Nazi rule. If anything further were needed to convince the Genu an people of the value of British freedom and justice and dispel the people’s fears as to British rule after the present war, it is to be found in the words of the late Sir Maui Pom arc, uttered in the New Zealand House of Representatives on December 9, 1918, just after the close of the Great War; “When in the council of nations the question of the future of the Pacific Islands is discussed, I want our chief to tell the councillors, as an authoritative voice from the Polynesian race, that ■never again must any Polynesian be put under the heel of the despicable lluu. Sirs, we know of the Samoans, our kin; wo. know of the eastern and western natives of German Africa; and wc know of the extermination of the Hereros. and that is enough for us. For 78 years we have been, not under the rule of the. British but taking a part in the ruling or ourselves, and we know by experience that the foundations of British sovereignty are based upon the eternal principles of liberty, equity and justice.”