The Wanganui Chronicle MONDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1937. HERR HITLER’S RIVAL

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 32, 8 February 1937, Page 6

The Wanganui Chronicle MONDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1937. HERR HITLER’S RIVAL

"pill-lliE is every possibility that the Crown Prince of Germany is a potential rival to Herr Adolf Hitler, and the reported apprehension of the Fuhrer concerning the doings of the Hohenzollern Prince lits in with the general situation.

The Nazi regime, as has been frequently emphasised in this column, is self-exhausting. It is a body which is living on itself. This cannot be continued over a long period because the deterioration proceeds with an accelerated pace. The signs of deterioration are obvious to-day.

The great weakness of Germany is her inability to expand her external trade. Whatever expansion has taken place in recent mouths has been with South-eastern Europe, where political influences have been operating to throw trade in Germany’s direction. Trade with Western Europe, which is by far the more staple market for German goods, has been steadily declining. The higher grade exports which Germany is qualified to provide arc being replaced by the domestic manufactures of the major countries of Europe.

External credits are a diminishing quantity, and loan finance is impossible because the wealthy countries of Europe realise that to finance German trade would be to relieve whatever internal funds there arc for the furthering of the armaments programme. Loans, therefore, would only accentuate an already unsatisfactory international situation. Government expenditure, however, is ascending speedily, and the Government, having taken upon itself the role of the miracle worker, finds it impossible to’ break off its rearmament and public works programme, because - 'it would release a large number of people from employment without providing them with alternative avenues for seeking a livelihood. To confess failure at the moment is out of the question. Where lies a possible way of escape for the Nazi regime? There is none; hence the process of feeding off its own body is intensified. The latest phase in Nazi activity is an attack upon Capitalism. Herr Htiler made an attack upon the economic chiefs in his Berlin speech, but this is by no means the first step along this new path. Early in December Herr Kohler, the director of the Nazi Commission for Economic Policy, made a sharp attack upon Capitalism, declaring that there could be no worse, nor more disadvantageous system. Capitalism, said Herr Kohler, does not conduce to the increase of the national wealth. This is a remarkable statement which is in keeping with that disregard for truth which is the outstanding characteristic of Nazi propaganda. How, indeed, does Herr Kohler account for the fact that under a capitalistic system Germany grew from a war weary, impoverished people at the end of the Napoleonic era to one of Ihe wealthiest nations in the world before the Great War.’ And how does he account for the fact that the Nazi regime has been unable to furnish that solvent for the economic troubles which now confront Germany?

The Nazi Party, to meet the present situation, has devised a Four-year Plan. The Government, according to the director, has a system of “popular economic” reckoning which is superior to the capitalistic. “Popular economic reckoning” is, as the Americans say, “a new one,” and it is not self-explanatory. What it means will depend upon further definition. According to Nazi party utterances, while unqualified capitalism is vicious there is a true capitalism which is desirable. This discrimination has yet to he defined, and it has also yet to be revealed in practice. Herr Kohler declares that Germany has been a victim of "monstrous exploitation” by foreigners, and even the Finance Minister of the Reich has declared that foreign “unreason” is responsible for Germany’s present troubles. It is clear that the Nazis are seeking a substitute for the Jews as the scapegoat. Meanwhile, however, the collapse of the system is envisaged by the Germans themselves, and evidently attempts to send money out of Germany have added to the Government’s difficulties. A new crime has therefore been legislated for, that of economic sabotage. But even where there is only a suspicion that an individual intends to send his capital out of Germany or, having it out, keeps it abroad, the estate of that individual may pass to a sort of receiver in bankruptcy. Grounds for suspicion would lie if considerable assets were suddenly realised for cash, and where suspicion rests the business of the suspects are administered under control, and their monetary receipts paid into blocked accounts. In the first week in December the property of thirty-nine citizens was confiscated on political grounds.

Capitalistic influence raised the Nazis to power in order that capitalism might be protected from Communism. Nazism and Communism have at least this much in common, that the rights of the individual arc completely overridden. The ranks of the propertied class in Germany contain the most energetic and the most intelligent members of the community, and it is not to he expected that the Capitalists of Germany will aeefuiesee in the Frankenstein monster of Nazism smashing the system it was created to defend. Some move in opposition to the regime is to be expected sooner or later, and the personality of the Crown Prince is a natural one for that around which that opposition shall orientate.