NERO

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 184, 10 July 1940, Page 7

NERO

The world has had a Hitler before. His name was Nero. Nero ieven had his Gestapo of * spies and secret police/Honourable citizens had to attend his shows * and festivals. Many were killed in the crush and many djted in their places through remainjfig day and f night rather than risk the ordeal of ; quitting and regaining their seats. •* Soldiers were scattered among the audience to inflict physical punishment upon those' who failed to maintain continuous applause, matching the applause stimulated by the cheerleaders at a Nazi meeting. The spies had lists of those who attended or were absent from the Nero assemblies. Poor absentees were punished &t once, and men of distinction wljo were absent were ® marked off for subsequent ruin, or ! even death. ! No man ran a greater risk than one whom Britain later came to \ know. He was accused of the crime of closing his eyes in a brief doze during one of Nero's assemblies, and only his rank saved his life. A few years later he became Che Emperor Vespasian, saved by the skin of his * t|2eth from the vengeance of the * first century Hitler. Spying, massacre, robbery, torture, corruption, and every form of wrong, tyranny, and injustice ram- J pant in Hitler's Germany all seem '* copied from the age and practice * of Nero's Rome, with Hitler and his stolen ideas in Mfein Kampf in the place of Rome's worst emperor. *