NAZISM AT WORK

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18255, 25 November 1933, Page 8

NAZISM AT WORK

“FRENZIED PATRIOTISM” IMPRESSIONS OF HITLER SYDNEY, Nov. 18. Captain W. P. Crawford Greene, an Australian-born member of the House of Commons, who- recently flew to Sydney from London in the aeroplane The faithful City, gave a vivid account of his experiences in Germany under the Nazi regime in an address- to members of the National- Club. Captain -Crawford Greene-toured Germany as a member of an aeroplane : party -which included six members of the Imperial Parliament. It was-only a (‘joy-ride,” ho explained, but everywhere they were treated with the greatest hospitality. In Berlin the members of the party were introduced to the Chancellor, Ilerr Hitler. “We were put- in a room where there were about 20 ofiieials from the German Foreign Office,” -Captain Crawford Greene said. “Presently in came a Brown Nazi with orders. We were, lined up in a circle, and then tliore was a crash at the end of a long corridor in front of us as a guard of two Nazis flung double doors open.and Hitler Came out. Hitler stopped before' each German official and said ‘Heil!’ and they replied ‘Heil !’ He shook'bands with-each of us, but did not ‘Heil’ ns. -Then be stood back aUd made a speech. I ''do riot Understand German, but was told that it was a good speech, closely reasoned and reasonable. At' the end, Hitler went down the long corridor and tiie doors were slammed again. “Hitler looks one straight in the eye. He impressed me as a man whoso mind was already made up to such an-extent that nothing in the world would -shift it.” 'i . ' ‘‘MAD-KEEN HITLERITES” Captain Crawford Greene said that every employee he spoko to-was a “madkeen” Hitlerite. The employers were Hitlerites, too, but they -were not so enthusiastic: They rather feared that Hiller had gone too far. - An Englishwoman living in Germany had described to him an address which bad been delivered to assemblies of d i tec tin's , arid employees in a factory. 1 The Nazi lender warned thr employees that the Nazis promised them nothing. Tithes were had, and they might become worse; but the Nazis would do their best to keep them alive. To- the directors the Nazi leader said: “You have been under the microscope, though you perhaps do not In ov it. If you show big dividends, and then tell your employees that times are bad arid wages must be reduced, you will hear from us. If you take your holidays in foreign countries instead of providing employment for sons of the Fatherland, you will hear from us.” And the directors said: “Heil, Hitler!”' - ;

“It was marvellous,” Captain Crawford Greene continued, “to see the unemployed going to work. They marched down the roads in fours carrying their tools, and lustily singing Nazi songs. They work without pay. Hitler says to the unemployed when they reach doleage : ‘Why should the Fatherland do anything for you; you have done nothing for it? If you work for nothing for a year you will have done something for the Fatherland, and it will do something for you.’ And the unemployed say. ‘Heil. Hitler !’ I do not think the Germans want war unless it is necessary. I do not think that they can be ready for war for a long time, lacking as they do all modern appliances. My impressions of them can be summed up by saying that they arc obsessed by a frenzied patriotism.” MILITARISTIC SPIRIT An intensely militaristic spirit pervades Germany under the dictatorship of Hitler, according to Mr. A. E. Ler-ov, who readied Sydney by the. Cephee,. , Mr. Leroy, who is assistant master at the Cleveland street Intermediate High School, has been investigating social arid educational conditions in Great Britain and the Continent. Everywhere, lie went in Germany, lie said, he saw young men marching with their Equipment on their back, and striding out like soldiers inarching into the firing-line for the first time. Hitler will not tolerate pacifism. Teachers have been forced to return to the old militaristic interpretation of history. One active pacifist who was a teacher in Germany had boon placed in prison because he refused to be stifled. Mr. Leroy visited the annual conference of the International' Teachers’ Federation in Spain, At the beginning of Hie conference there was a boated debate over Hitler’s action in refusing to allow pacifist delegates to attend the conference. The federation is pledged to promote the cause of world peiice. The German delegates to the last congress' in Stockholm were pacifists. Hitler refused to allow them to attend the -congress in Snaui, but he sent four delegates whose v'ews were in accord with that of the Nazi party. By an almost unanimous vote the congress expelled the German delegates. People in Germany, Mr. Leroy said, were always very anxious to hear what Pngii-h people thought- of - the Hitler Administration. When they wore tekl that Em-fish people preferred ■ a democracy to a di'-tatorship. Germans always grew thoughtful.