VIOLENCE GROWING

Taranaki Daily News, 16 October 1934, Page 7

VIOLENCE GROWING

GERMANY'S CHURCH WAR MANY DEMONSTRATIONS PASTORS MADE TO RESIGN “INCONCEIVABLE EVENTS” By Telegraph—Press Assn. —Copyright. Rec. 10.30 p.m. London, Oct. 14. The church war is becoming more violent in Wurtemberg, where there are nightly demonstrations in support of Dr. Wurm and other deposed and arrested church leaders, says the News Chronicle’s Berlin correspondent. The police at Stuttgart are forcibly arresting ’pastors who refuse to resign and are also forbidding public prayers. Nazi “German Christians” interrupted services in some churches and on two occasions blows were exchanged. Thousands marched to the Episcopal Palace at Munich, where Bishop Meiser is held prisoner, and protested against his treatment, but they dispersed before armed Nazi guards could take action.

The battle between the Nazi German Christians and 8000 dissident pastors is reaching a climax in fierceness, owing to secret police shadowing the Bishops of Bavaria and Wurtemberg. Dr. Mueller, the Nazi bishop, spent the week-end at his Silesian estate, while pastors throughout the country protested in almost unprecedented language, nearly all referring to the opposition manifesto, the distribution of which the police prevented. A congregation overflowing into the rain-swept street struggled to hear Dr. Nieumoller endorse the manifesto. Munich pastors denounced Muellerites as the “allies of heresy, laying waste the House of God.” They hurled defiance at the forcible domination of the Bavarian Church by Dr. Jager, the Church Commissioner. Subscriptions were taken up to support allegiance to Dr. Meiser, whose continuance in office is demanded.

“We Germans don’t kneel and pray—we act,” said Dr. Goebbels, Minister of (Propaganda, in a characteristic oration at Cologne, referring to the church struggle. The' Times, referring to the subject, says: “These incidents were inconceivable in Nazi Germany a few months ago. They are significant of the hostility which Herr Hitler’s present church policy is arousing among Bavarian Protestants.”

Von Epp, Catholic governor of Bavaria, conferred with Herr Hitler, urging him to settle the church dispute, says the Berlin correspondent of the Chronicle. Herr Hitler refused to intervene. The iron hand has also been ruthlessly used in Prussia, where many clergymen have been arrested. One high dignitary was taken from his sick bed.