BECOMING STEADILY WORSE

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLV, Issue 21216, 10 December 1938, Page 17

BECOMING STEADILY WORSE

Internal Condition in Germany Popular Dissatisfaction Expressed Activity of Communists Fate Of Brave Pastor United Pi ess Association—By Electric Teiegraj h—Copyright LONDON, December 7. “The Daily Express” states that economic conditions in Germany are steadily becoming worse, and a Party purge is in full swing. It is stated that the Gestapo has arrested several important Foreign Office officials, a number of high civil servants at Dusseldorf, Leipzig and Vienna and 40 Army men, including Generals. DEFIANCE OF NAZISM DR NIEMOLLER NOT RELEASED Lulled Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright LONDON, December 7. The Berlin correspondent of "The Daily Telegraph” states that hopes that Dr Niemoller, head of the Confessional Church, would be released from the concentration camp will be disappointed, as Dr Niemoller has flatly refused to cease preaching. He declared that the call to preach came from God, not from the State. Although Dr. Niemoller is still behind the walls of a concentration camp, the Bishop of Chichester (Dr Bell) recently revealed that he is able to get news of the pastor’s health and state of mind. Dr. Bell was preaching at Rotherfield, Sussex. “I knew him personally,” he said, “and the Pastor is not a political, but a religious leader. He had dared to be a prophet of God in face of a great movement all over Germany which puts human institutions and human powers in God’s place. Man of Great Faith “He believes that God is far greater than any earthly ruler, that obedience to Him is more than obedience to anybody else in the world, that human souls are responsible to God whatever the costs. “When I saw him last year before he was sent on his trial I had a long conversation with him. I found him a man of great modesty, great vitality, and great faith.” Dr. Bell said that Dr. Niemoller stood before the heads of the German State, not in his own strength or in his own interests, but as an ambassador of the Body of Christ. The present age, added the Bishop, could be described as one of godmaking. What inspired this god-making in various countries was the worship of power.

RED PROPAGANDA ACTIVE COUNTER MEASURES IN GERMANY United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Conyrlght BERLIN, December 8. Charged with spreading Communism on behalf of the International Socialist Fighting Force, three men were sentenced by the People’s Court to three, two and one and a-half years’ imprisonment. The prosecution alleged that the men spread propaganda by pamphlets and gramophone records smuggled from abroad. This is the second group tried this week and it is understood that 20 are awaiting trial.