WARLIKE SPIRIT OF PRUSSIA

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19628, 24 October 1933, Page 7

WARLIKE SPIRIT OF PRUSSIA

MILITARY AUTHOR’S FORECAST BELIEF IN MIGHT OVER RIGHT United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright LONDON, October 21. A striking phase in a book entitled "Years of Decision” by the German philosophic historian. Herr Oswald Spengler, reads, "The World War was only the first rumbling of a storm which, heavy with fate, is to break over this century, wherein the world will be remodelled.” It is the only publication critical of Nazism which Herr Hitler has permitted to appear. Summarising his credo of aggressive militarism Herr Spengler condemns the Nazls's “hurrah” mood, and declares that the revolutipn has been over-easy. He adds, “Woe betide those confusing mobilisation for victory. Let Germany reserve her enthusiasm for the day when she emerges triumphant from the conflict wherein the western world will be involved. “This is not a time for sentimentalism. The Oxford undergraduates' pacifist resolution is among the many indications that England is decaying and her youngsters have become soft, making a sport of eroticism and a profession of sport. America has failed because she lacks stamina and has falsified her destiny. “Only the warrier spirit, that is the Prussian spirt, exploited by a young, valiant, and strong Germany, Will survive. Many nations are too old and stiff to defend themselves. “Man Is a beast of prey and the race is to the swift and the battle to the strong. German women must breed warriors and take pleasure therein. It is of greater consequence that the nation be racially strong than racially pure. “We are, perhaps, on the eve of a second world war: let Germany prepare.” GERMANY WANTS PEACE. POLICY DEFINED BY HITLER. □Cited Press Association— By thectfti Telegraph—Copyright BERLIN, October 22. Herr Hitler, addresslhg cheering thousands of Storm Troopers outside the Liberty Hall, at Kelheim, reiterated that Germany wanted peace, but declined the dishonour of oppression. Her people were hot warlike. Life similar to their past fifteen years would be Intolerable. The world could have Oermany in the League on condition of recognising her as a nation, but she would not co-operate in framing edicts instead of treaties. AIMS OF NAZIS OUTLINED. CHANGING GERMANY BY MIRACLE. LONDON, September 6. The meaning of the Nazi rally at Nuremberg, It was explained in a proclamation which opened the congress. was to bind the leaders and the led yet more closely together, to strengthen one and all in their belief in ultimate victory, and to Impart a great spiritual and'psychological Impulse for the continuation of the fight. In the proclamation Herr Hitler celebrated the triumph of his party. “A miracle has taken place in Oermany. What we hoped for in the long years of our fight, what We all believed in our hearts, what we were ready to make every sacrifice for, even life itself—that has now become reality. It is a special Joy to know that the overwhelming majority of the German people stands with Us in true fidelity to the new Government," he proclaimed. “It is beautiful and advantageous to know that the power is in one's hands, but more beautiful and advantageous to be able to call the love and affection oi a nation one’s own.” Reference te the Jews. Referring to the Jews, he stated: “If the great historian Mommsen described the Jews as an element of decomposition, then this decomposition is already in an advanced stage In Germany." And he declared that "it is one of the most Important tasks of the movement to fight the destroyers of Oerman people’s power of resistance.” He emphasised the Socialist side of the party's doctrine when he declared: "It is neither logical nor moral nor Just In the long run to take part of the fruits of their industry from those who work for the maintenance of those who do not work. . . .

“Nobody has the moral right to demand that others should work In order that he may be spared from work, but each has the right to demand that the State shall find ways and means to let each have work.” On another occasion the Nazi leader said: “Oermany does not need another war to re-establish her military honour. For four and a half years our armies resisted bravely the attempts of twenty nations to defeat one. That was honour and glory enough. Our dishonour was brought on us at home. That dishonour has now been wiped out by the national revolution.” Over Whom the Victory? Commenting on Herr Hitler's speeches, "The Times’’ asks, “Against

what is the struggle to continue? Over whom will be the victory? “Those are the qquestions which foreigners still dubiously ask themselves. The proclamation proceeded with a vehement attack on the Jews and a caustic condemnation of the democratic system. But in those respects surely the Nazis have already completed their inglorious triumphs. The unhappy Jews of Germany, with the exception of the smaller traders, are herded in concentration camps, or deprived of their means of livelihood, often forbidden or unable to le|ve the country, reduced to penury, and cruelly confronted with starvation. There is not much more 'victory to be won over them. And of democratic institutions hardly a trace remains. Popular Legislatures exist only in shadow form. The right of assembly and Of free speech is restricted to proved Nazis. There is not liberty of speech or of thought. The ballot-box is derided as a cowardly device for exercising anonymous pressure; free elections are stigmatised as a form of national license; the right of criticism was dismissed in the proclamation as a mere slogan, for which Nazism would substitute an ‘inner unity of thought and desire.’ "The German people must adopt the political philosophy which suits them best; but to foreign observers, at any rate in this country, a 'unity of thought’ which is attained by bludgeoning different views out of the heads of those who hold them is not an ‘lnner’ unity, but an artificial and worthless standardisation, exacting compliance not from conviction but from terror or from calculated selfinterest." Military Prowess of Germany. Regarding the remark that Oermany had no need of rehabilitation on the battlefield, for there she had never lost her prestige, the “Times” says: “That is a sentiment with which former opponents in the field will not refuse to concur; and Herr Hitler may be trying gradually to wean his followers from the Idea, so plainly inculcatsd in his earlier writings and speeches, that only by military prowess could that position, be regained for Germahy which she had lost in 1918. Nobody, in fact, has praised the military virtues more enthusiastically than the present German Chancellor, and his disciples are still preaching them." The writer goes on to mention the book of a Nazi professor who has recently been appointed to a Chair of Military Science. “He propounds ‘the high ethical value of war’; and would have every child encouraged to play ’robber and soldier’ games and have their minds directed into military channels from the age of six upwards. He moreover advocates the study of bacteriological warfare, although Germany is a party with other countries to the Convention of 1925, which forbids it. The Nazi leader also said at Nuremberg that it was more honourable for one land to hold out for four and a half years against superior odds than for twenty countries to conquer a single nation. This salve for Oerman mlltary l honour will not be grudged to him. But It has to be recorded that he prefaced these relatively pacific declarations by saying the world must not see In the Nazi revolution the expression of a desire to win new laurels on the battlefield. Was the whole of this passage Just a calculated effort to Impress foreign opinion? It would not be fair to make that assumption; but the outside world is bound to Judge the leaders of new Oermany by their policy rather than by their professions; and according to that criterion it cannot yet feel reassured.”