The Bay of Plenty Beacon Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. MONDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1946 RESURGENT GERMAN NATIONALISM

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 10, Issue 34, 7 October 1946, Page 4

The Bay of Plenty Beacon Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. MONDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1946 RESURGENT GERMAN NATIONALISM

CONSIDERABLE importance attaches the opinion of one

of the leading American correspondents at Nuremberg, that as a direct result of the trials of the German war criminals, there will arise something of the old Nazi spirit of truculance, which, has been lurking underground ever since the Allied occupation. Observers in the British, American and French zones are becoming increasingly alarmed at the development of the underground movement, and it is clear ' that the “round up” of suspected Nazi agitators a few weeks ago has not put an end to the anti-Allied activities. Information from the Russian zone is lacking, owing to the strict censorship, but Germans making their way to the British and American zones report the existence in the Russian area of powerful Nazi agitation. Reports of this nature have been sufficiently convincing to give rise to talks between the British Foreign Minister, Mr Bevin, and the French Government, on the whole question of Germany s political future. Victory on the field of battle has been the primary, but by no means the sole, objective of the Allies. German and Japanese military ambitions arose from long-cultivated philosophies of national and racial superiority. Such inspired philosophies cannot be destroyed on the battlefield alone. History has shown only too clearly that military defeat, unaccompanied by the removal of the creed that developed into aggression, will lead in time to further “wars of revenge. Indeed, one of the chief tenets of the Nazi creed was “revenge” for the peace terms imposed at Versailles. With this experience as their guide, the Allies were fully conscious not only that the surrender terms should be enforced to the final letter, but that the remnants of Nazism should be destroyed at their roots and the German people re-educated along contrary lines. Unfortunately, in the carrying out of this plan, the Allies have not been altogether at one. The tension which existed in.the final days of the war regarding the delimitation of the zone boundaries has persisted in other ways. At the London and Moscow conferences of the Foreign Ministers wide divergencies in policy regarding control measures were apparent. Russia’s disagreement with the proposed location for the trial of the major Nazi criminals and with the terms of indictment, caused weeks of delay in the commencement of the trial, while Russia’s demand for summary committal and punishment was in opposition to the British' and American view that the trials should take place with full respect to legal and constitutional procedure. Japan’s surrender and occupation presented a. somewhat different picture, The Emperor’s abolition of Shintoism left the Japanese people, as it were, in a vacuum which the Allies, through their unified'control of all means of propaganda and' education, have endeavoured to fill in such a way that the people as a whole will develop a more enlightened attitude towards their individual and group responsibilities. While Germany is divided into zones, each under the discretionary control of one of the Big Four, the Japanese mainland has been kept intact, and control has been exercised by one authority, the Supreme Commander, aided by the Council for Japan. Both are responsible to the Far Eastern Commission, and this in turn to the Security Council of United Nations. Japan has her own new-formed national leadership, subject to Allied supervision. While Germany continues without such leadership voicing a policy endorsed and supervised by the Allies jointly, Nazism is tempted once again to emerge as an active national cult. Upon the Allies must fall the task of reviewing the whole structure of the control system in Germany, with a view not only to stamping out Nazism; but of replacing it with an outlook and a national policy more in keeping with the higher ideals and principles of United Nations.