GERMAN SITUATION

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 77, 28 September 1933, Page 13

GERMAN SITUATION

W.E.A. LECTURE T

'"That the problems of the world todayare international, and can only be solved by international agreement," was a statement made by Professor G-.W. vonZedUtz in the concluding lecture of his ' W.E.A. course on Tuesday night. The speaker said that it was a proposal which commanded ready assent from most people today,, and he went on to show that the National Socialist _ movement in Germany had deliberately rejected it, substituting a different outlook. .

The new outlook was thatthe problems of the world could best be solved by international agreement, but that this had proved impossible, and therefore each nation must solve its own problems as best it could, not interfering with others, not interfered with by others —economic, political, social self-sufficiency. This was not an ideal solution, but the only one practicable. It meant good-bye to the old ideal of the State as an organisation for winning - foreign markets, controlling sources of raw materials, and protecting and extending foreign trade. The concern of the State shrank to the duty of seeing that everyone had employment, with the correlative of everyone being supplied with all he (or she) wanted —modern science and inventions having converted extended purchasing power into a technical necessity of production. Only instead of looking for foreigners to buy at high prices,' the State would enable natives to buy at low prices."

The foundation of the National Spcialist political morality, said the lecturer, was therefore very like that of Henry Ford, being based on the duty of service to the community by sharing the profits of industry with the community, and the best method of such profit-sharing—low prices. The lecturer gave some details of the methods proposed for achieving this result, and for the elimination of class differences. But the latter was not to carry with it the identical treatment of individuals. Men were to be- rewarded differently according to degree of responsibility, e.g., breadwinners of large families, or business executives, but not on class grounds. Professor yon Zedlitz referred somewhat disparagingly to the personality of Hitler, stating that he was no. leader but was rather a man thrown up by vast forces of enthusiasm for moral rengeration from below. Yet, as representing a middle position between the national wing of his party still animated by bourgeois imperialisms, and tl;e extremely radical section led by Goenng, Hitler and his continued existence seemed of considerable value, for the orderly development of the revolution.

The lecturer also discussed the Reichstag fire trial and the Jewish. situation, showing the latter as due partly to.inherent factors in the movement, but also largely due to accidental causes. He concluded by expressing his personal dislike of the Hitler movement, while pleading for a suspension of judgment before we condemned something that had on. moral grounds secured the enthusiastic adherence of so many millions of people, especially of young people, whose moral sense was usually more reliable than that of the old.

A hearty vote of thanks was accorded to the lecturer'-'on the motion, of .Mr. H. ;P. Kidsot^ ' ■■'■'_. ' " "~<Jlj