Wairarapa Daily Times [Established Over 50 Years.] WEDNESDAY, 11th MAY, 1932. PRUSSIAN ELECTIONS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, 11 May 1932, Page 4

Wairarapa Daily Times [Established Over 50 Years.] WEDNESDAY, 11th MAY, 1932. PRUSSIAN ELECTIONS.

The success of the Nazis in the Prussian elections will cause concern in other countries, particularly in Prance, where it is bound to fan the smouldering embers of suspicion into flame, and it may jeopardise the Geneva Conference. The extreme Nationalists, the Steel Helmets, and the other aggressive elements have thrown in their lot with Herr Hitler because they recognise that he is every whit as irreconcilable as they are. During his trial for treason in 1930, when prudence should have enjoined discretion, he gloried in his intransigeanee. When the Nazis gained control, lie said, a new Court would be established to expiate the crimes of November, 1918, and “heads would roll in the sand.” He boasted that his adherents are animated by “a fanatical love for their fatherland, and an invincible fighting spirit.” Their aim, according to him, is to transform a small professional army into a great one. These provocative sentiments are not reassuring, and even if lie was playing to the gallery France cannot be blamed if she takes them at their face value. Fascism, of which Hitlerism is the German equivalent, is a militant creed, but with Signor Musso- . lini it is tempered with a restraint v,wliicli is absent in Herr Hitler. Signor Mussolini’s volcanic utterances are intended for local consumption ; those of Herr Hitler are addressed to a wider audience.

True, Germany lias been disarmed. lint, siiouid her people, egged on by the Nazis, choose to bout the treaty, force alone Avould avail to check them. Wliat with the jJanubian states on the verge of oankruptcy, and the star of Hitlerism m the ascendant in Germany, the atmosphere of Europe is again charged with disquieting possibilities.