REGIMENTED GERMANY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 4, 6 January 1939, Page 8

REGIMENTED GERMANY

MR. A. H. COCKAYNE’S VIEWS POLICY NOT A SUCCESS WITH FARMERS WORK OF WOMEN ON THE LAND [Per Pres. Association.] WELLINGTON,’ Jan. 5. Sime impressions of agriculture in Germany were given to-day by Mr. A H. Cockayne, Director-General ol Agriculture, who returned to New Zealand recently after an eight months’ tour of Australia, Canada and Europe, during which he investigated matters of interest to his department. Mr. Cockayne expressed the view that regimentation as a means by which the Nazis imposed their will on the German people was not succeeding among the farmers, and was not likely to succeed because the farmers, as a class, did not easily submit to regimentation. Individualists in action and outlook, they did not wish to be told what to produce or ho wto produce it. On the other sections of the people the Nazis had imposed their ideas with amazing success. The size of holdings in Germany varied considerably, some being as small as two or three acres. The Government laid down as a minimum standard that the farm must be capable of providing a living for a man with a family of three children. As the farm was required to support the family, much of it was devoted to growing products for home consumption, and as a result then was an extensive development ol market gardening. Any surplus o: production was sold in the village market. Strip cultivation was com mon and he had seen as much as a

’square mile divided into separately j owned strips only a few yards wide. I He had not visited Prussia, where I holdings were large, but had gone to | the north of Italy, where the low yield lot wheat per acre had led to the suhstitution of rice. . To a New Zealander, the amount of work done by women on German farms was astounding, said [Mr. Cockayne. In the grow--1 ing of vines, to which much of I Europe seemed to be devoted, as well [as vegetable products for home consumption, women performed a great ideal of routine work, such as hoeing, and he had seen them pulling the plough. During the September crisis, Mr. Cockayne said, he was in London and had to delay his visit to the ContinI ent. One result of the disturbed situation was the cancellation of a conference of fertiliser interests which was to have been held in Rome. Official quarters in England had expressed wonder at the organisation which enabled the countermanding of German troops’ marching orders to become effective in such a quick time. Germany was absolutely prepared from the military point of view and one of the strongest impressions gained by the visitor was that of great military four-way roads for swift transport of mechanised units.