MILITARISM IN GERMANY

Chronicle (Levin), 31 December 1949, Page 5

MILITARISM IN GERMANY

(N.Z.P.A.-

-Reuter.

♦ Newspapers Still Keeping ThemeAlive

CopyrigfitJ

Received Friday, 8.-20 p.in, LONDON, Dee, 30, The Times' Frankfurt corresppndent says reports in German newspapers continue to keep alive the theme of active or proSpective l'e-militarizatiOil. The latest reports repeat that German contingents should be' i*aised fot Western European defeix.ee, and one wrlter suggests that to pay for this the oceupation costs should be increased accordingly. ' So far as can be ascertained the Allied High Commlssion has not entertaiiied any such xdea, and the quPstion arises whether such 'reports are mgx'eiy a by-prodxxct of the pi'esent completely inactive political period in Gefnxaiiy, oi" whether. they ire being launched by Ger'mans who still think it best that' their countx'ymen should agaitx be called to arms. Those who take the Second view do not believe that militarism is being reborn in the shnxe fornx'as that which traxnpled upon Exirope. twice itx half a century, but that this time simply a. sense of insecurity has takeh root. Evei'y sample of opinion tested rdcently shows that the German people are still prixnarily concerned with their daily worries, that they have had enough, at least for some time, of fttempts at military aggrandisement, and that their political cotxseiousness :s expanding, though sloWljr.