DR. STRESEMANN’S DEATH

Taranaki Daily News, 4 October 1929, Page 9

DR. STRESEMANN’S DEATH

GERMAN FOREIGN MINISTER ‘REAL CREATOR OF LOCARNO’ WORK FOR WORLD'S PEACE Dr. Gustav Stresemann, who with Lord D’Abernon was the real creator of Locarno, is dead. A United Service cablegram from London last night announced that Germany’s statesman-hero died at the age of 51 years. A year ago he was afflicted by a serious internal complaint but he fought it with will-power and work. Recently his condition became critical and an operation was performed. The recent decision of the Allies to evacuate the Rhineland raised still higher in Germany the prestige of Dr. Stresemann, who was the Foreign Minister, an office he held after 1924. For some time Dr. Stresemann had been recognised as one of the leading statesmen in Europe. In his own country he was acclaimed the greatest master of Parliamentary tactics on the Continent. As Foreign Minister for the German Republic he supported a policy of understanding with Great Britain and France. His admiration for England was disclosed by the fact that he sent one of his sons to Cambridge. ' - “He who would grow roses well must first have roses in his heart,” an English writer has declared. When Dr. Stresemann was not bothered by the perplexities of European politics he devoted his time to the growing of roses. He has been described ag a middie-class German mixture of the romantic and the practical. Gustav wrote poetry by moonlight and did translations of the poems of Moore and Longfellow when he was a young student without private means. The idealist in him rejected journalism as a profession because of the fear of being subordinate to another man’s opinion. As a practical student Dr. Stresemann made _ economics his particular study. The subject of his thesis for his university degree was the development of the bottled "beer trade in. Berlin. The title may seem ludricous, especially in view of the student’s lofty and beautiful ideals, but the thesis was a triumphant study of the decline of the independent middle-class. A brilliant constructive part was played by the young doctor in the period of activity that raised German industry to such a height of efficiency. That was before he entered politics at the age of 29! Dr. Stresemann’s simple ana effective policy as a builder of industry earned him a reputation as the pioneer of big industry in Germany—a role, by the by, in which he at no time forgot the interests of the workers. His biographer says of this remarkable man: “Stresemann’s post-war career is well known to every newspaper reader. It says much for his tolerance and broad humanity that he was so quickly able to forget the war spirit and to apply himself to reconstructing a prostrate and sorely divided Germany. In his foreign policy he has been a constant ‘Westerner’ and has steadfastly refused to ally himself w’ith those who by an unholy alliance ■with Russia seek to wreck their vengeance on France for the ignominy of defeat. “Greatly influenced by Lord D’Abernon, the ablest of all post-war ambassadors, he sought a policy of understanding with France and England. With Lord D’Abernon he is the real creator of Locarno, and the highest tribute to hie ability is the fact that he wag able to win over 80 per cent, of the people of Germany for his policy.”