GERMAN PRESIDENCY

Wairarapa Daily Times, 12 March 1932, Page 2

GERMAN PRESIDENCY

HINDENBURG-’S APPEAL

BERLIN, Friday

“I' stand as trustee for the whole German people. I will be bound only by God, my conscience, and the Fatherland,” said President Hindenburg in a fifteen minutes’ broadcast in connection with his campaign for re-election. He banged the study table, his voice vibrating with anger, as he repelled personal attacks, for which alone he broke a seven years’ silence. ‘•My life and my life’s work,” he declared, “will tell more than words nn r aims and desires.” He explained that he only offered himself for re-elec-tion to fulfil a patriotic duty. If he had declined, there would have been a danger of a party split, resulting in the election of an extremist partisan, who would cause disaster to the fatherland. He affirmed his determination to stand in the second ballot, if not elected in the first. He regretted that some of his former electors, even his own comrades, misunderstood him. He declared that he signed the Young Plan because lie was convinced that it was an essential step to national freedom, a step which had already resulted in the freedom of the Rhineland. He only signed emergency decrees because the Reichstag had failed in its task. He urged the nation to recapture the spirit of 1914 and reunite for the sake of the Fatherland.