AMAZING MARCH IN BERLIN

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16389, 11 July 1927, Page 2

AMAZING MARCH IN BERLIN

UNOFFICIAL ARM VOF 100,000 BACK TO 1914 MILITARISM. BERLIN, May 9. An army of ICO,COO men stood in the midst- of Berlin tins morning. The multitude of men was so great: that there was not room for them in the square, longer and wider than Trafal-gar-square, which is bounded by the castle and the cathedral and the old museum, and their grey, lines stretched 'down Outer den Linden past the former palace of the Crown Prince and the Opera House to the palace of the old Emperor William and the statue of Frederick the Great. , “ft takes me. back to August 1914, said a man who was standing next me beneath the high portico of the museum from which we surveyed the field-grey ranks. The men of this army call themselves the Steel Helmets. They have come to 'Berlin, the home of republicanism, of democracy, of Socialism, and of pacifism from every part of the Reich to show the capital of Germany what they desire and stand for. They are soldiers without arms who are crying to heaven for rifles and bayonets and machine

guns find artillery.

THE RIGHT TO AltM v A mighty shout went up from their ranks when Franz iSeldte, their leader whose voice came to their ranks by loud-speakers, declared that they demanded the restoration ol the German ' right to nvm. Most of them are men who fought in Ihe Great World War, and slnfillder to shoulder with them are youths they have taken into their ranks to imbue them with the spirit which made the German people wage war against I heir neighbors. Ifi look at the faces of the men in Held-grey tunics arid forage caps who marched past in never-ending lines was to understand that men of every class are united in the Steel Helmets organisation—agricultural workers, 'Jlarmers,. workmen, students, and professional! men, men with expressionless faces and men with intellectual and refined faces. Their presence in Berlin is a. proof of their strength. They have come here in the teeth of opposition. They were warned not to come. The authorities of the city refused to help them. Many owners of premises where they might have been housed refused to give them shelter. Tens of thousands of them travelled all night to take part in today’s demonstration. They leave for distant homes as soon as it is ended. THE GOVERNMENT AFRAID To show Germany what they stand for and what force the country possesses they have put. their pennies week by we., to pay for the journey, and now that they are here the Government of the Reich is afraid of them. What will the world say to this manifestation of a- spirit which it had thought, was dead? Wlmt will the world say when it is known that an arrp" of 100,000 men was drawn up in the capital. The Republican newspapers most unjustly try to persuade their readers that, flie warlike demonstration is a failure. They declared yesterday that Berlin’s welcome was icy, and last night in the immense stadium on the outskirts of the city 1 heard 60,000 people cheering wildly when the banner bearers of the Steel Helmets entered to the music of that march which t.he Germans played, when they entered Paris in 1871. These papers declare this morning that only oO.COO Steel Helmets had come, and f went out and saw so great a multitude that to estimate it at a hundred thousand, tts I have after careful inquiry, is not to over-estimate it by a man. * The Government has shown its fear of being compromised in Britain and France and Italy by retiring from the capital. The Chancellor and Dr. Stresemann persuaded their Nationalist colleagues to refuse the invitation to attend the Steel Helmet review. An “unavoidable” absence from Berlin is their excuse. President Hindenburg received Franz Sieldte, the founder of the fi,.! Helmets, and then retired to Oldenburg. .A TYPICAL JOHN BULL This Franz Isold to, is the owner of an important chemical manufactory. He is a short, stumpy man with (forgive me for saving it) a typical John Bull face with whiskers. He struck me as f stood near him when he gave his message to his army this morning as a plain, unpretentious man. But he is a man who understood what Germans wanted, and he has given them a magnificent army, only a part of which stood here in Berlin this morning. Without official help or sanction the German people has brought together a. mighty force, which is ever growing. What is the faith of this army of (he nation? This morning a great shout went up from a hundred thousand throats when a streamer in the colors of the Germany of the Kaisers—black, white, and red—fell from the heavens, dropped by an aeroplane, And among those to hear that shout were three of the exKaiser’s sons, the Prince Eitcl Friedrich and his two younger brothers, and the Duke of Saxe Coburg Gotha—Steel Helmets themselves. TO' UPSET THE TREATIES “The iSluol Helmets declare,’’ said the lender to Iris army this morning, “that, they do not recognise the situation created by (lie Treaty of Versailles and its Inter amplifications (the Dawes Plan and the Treaties of Locarno). The leader declared that the Steel Helmets demand; 1. A national State, including all Germans. 2. The restoration of Germany’s right, to arm. / 3. The retraction of the acknowledgment of Germany’s guilt for the war. 4. The regulation of war debts on the basis of common responsibility of all nations responsible for the war. Franz S'eldte made it clear that these demands will not he abandoned even if the evacuation of the occupied territory takes place and rectification of the eastern frontier is made. And when these demands had been formulated, the crash of t tip instruments of a hundred militfir* hands arid the thunder of a hundred thousand voices made a terrible vow of the words “Deutschland. Deutschland über Alios. Ueber Alias in der Well.” Germany, Germany before all. Before all iri (lie World.!