The Southland Tiomes WEDNESDAY, MAY 1, 1940. New Theme in Nazi Propaganda

Southland Times, Issue 24114, 1 May 1940, Page 6

The Southland Tiomes WEDNESDAY, MAY 1, 1940. New Theme in Nazi Propaganda

A PSYCHOLOGIST could dis'll- cover traces of Germany’s secret worries in a broadcast speech by Dr Robert Ley, Leader of the Nazi Labour Front. “We shall destroy the British Navy,” he is reported to have said. “The British are plutocrats who know only one god—the money bag. Every German working man is worth more than an English Lord.” The Royal Navy and Britain’s financial strength are the two factors from which Germany has most to fear; and in the past few weeks their importance has been thrown into relief by events on the seas and in London. Command of the North Sea has allowed Britain to hamper the Nazi advance in Norway. It has caused the destruction of German warships, transports and supply ships, so that if the Nazis are to “destroy” the Royal Navy they must now rely on a small and crippled fleet and on the striking power of their bombers, which have failed so far to establish their expected advantage over naval vessels. Dr Ley was apparently indulging in wishful thinking, a tendency which was again noticeable in his reference to Britain’s money bag.” The reception given last week to the British Budget was a striking proof, not only of the strength of the nation’s financial resources, but of its determination to make the fullest use of them in the war against Nazism. This attitude was not expressed by a handful of party leaders who had gained control of the country’s resources, as in Germany, and who were speaking fox* a people that had no voice in its own affairs. On the contrary, the representatives of the people have advocated a stronger effort. And although Dr Ley attempted to identify British aristocrats with an alleged plutocracy, the world knows that there are nearly 40,600,000 Englishmen who are neither Lords nor plutocrats, and yet are united in their resolve to win the war against Germany. These people are sharing the weight of the struggle. They cannot be deluded by the specious appeals of Nazi propagandists, for they have not forgotten the lies and treachery of Hitler, the brutalities of Germany’s internal policy, and the tragic fate of Poland and Czechoslovakia. “Brown Bolshevism”

The memory of these infamies has become the strongest defence against Nazi propaganda. No matter how often or how cai efully Dr Ley speaks of British capitalism, he cannot alter the fact that he is the representative of a system so hateful to free people that even the severest critics of Britain’s so-called “Money Power are ready to put aside their political differences until the common enemy is defeated. Some weeks ago Dr Ley paraphrased a famous passage from the Communist Manifesto of Marx and Engels. “Workers of all lands,” he declaimed, “unite to smash the rule of English capitalism!” This was in the heyday of the Nazi-Soviet alliance, when men wondered if there was to be “brown bolshevism” in Germany, or “red fascism” in Russia. The point which probably attracted most attention in free lands, however, was that the appeal came from the Nazi who rules the oppressed workers of Germany. In 1848 the words of Marx and Engels included a sentence that could be applied, nearly a hundred years later, to the workers of Germany: “The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains.” Where else but in Germany are the workers depressed so near the status of modern slaves? They have no trade unions, no freedom of speech, assembly or opinion. Concentration camps await the man who speaks too boldly. In his more recent speech Dr Ley stressed the worth of the German worker, but he refrained from appealing to a proletarian brotherhood, and he claimed Italy instead of Russia as a potential ally. Does this mean that the influence of Moscow is already fading in Berlin?