The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, JUNE 20, 1934. POLITICAL REVOLT IN GERMANY.

Evening Star, Issue 21751, 20 June 1934, Page 8

The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, JUNE 20, 1934. POLITICAL REVOLT IN GERMANY.

It is startling news which comes today from Germany. Herr Hitler’s Vice-Chancellor, Herr Von Papen, has kicked over the traces of discipline. He has dared to criticise the Government of which he is a member, and that in no uncertain terms. In an address at Marburg University, which the German papers did not dare to report more than partially, he declared that enthusiasm for the Nazi regime was declining, and for that he blamed its leaders. There was too much coercion. The Government “ ought to be strong enough to stand decent criticism.” Patriots should not be branded as enemies of the State. The Germans were not children, who could be kept in the dark about their circumstances. They knew that there was an economic crisis. They could resent the injustice of violence They could smile at indiscreet attempts to deceive them by falsifications.” If a Minister said that sort of thing about his colleagues even in England there would be nothing for him to do but resign. He could say it again, with enlargements, in Parliament and up and down the country, but not as a member of the Government he was attacking. The offence must be more heinous in Germany. Nazi discipline is more than political; it is military. If honest Michael spoke so in the beer garden his next place would be a concentration camp. No wonder that the outburst of this Minister is reported to have caused a storm in the Cabinet.

Herr Von Papen was not an original Nazi. Ho was not very closely attached to any party when he was summoned two years ago to be Chancellor and formed a .Junker-Nationalist Cabinet reflecting monarchist and militarist aspirations. As Chancellor he did not last long. He has been Vice-Chancellor under Hitler since the Nazi regime began. As a Catholic he would be out of sympathy with one main policy of that party, though, oddly, Hitler is also a Catholic. It has. been sought to make religion almost entirely subordinate to the State. The Catholic Church had to bo excepted from that design, but observance of the Concordat which was agreed to last July for the protection of Catholics has never given satisfaction, and the Pope has condemned Nazism as a revival of paganism. Von Papen went to Pome a few months ago to smooth over difficulties, and apparently did not succeed in bringing the ideas of his colleagues and the Vatican into uniformity. The boldness of Von Papen’s revolt against Cabinet discipline might have meant either that, on one ground and another, ho was too disgusted with the Government to count risks for himself in criticising it, or that he does not expect Herr Hitler’s Government, whatever his own actions might be, to last long. Ostensibly it is strong in the saddle, but coercion does not abolish enemies; it only drives them underground. The attempt on the church must have caused widespread resentment. Apart from being bad morality the proscription of the Jews was bad business, causing reprisals by their sympathisers in other countries which have accelerated the latest financial crisis, lieports from Sweden, received here a few days ago, suggested that nobody in that country expected the Nazi Government to last long. What would come after it nobody knew. It has been a great reaction up to the present stage. In an address to young farmers, given by Professor Lawson yesterday, to hear which alouo might have made worth while their week’s visit to town, reference was made to both Fascism and Nazism.

“ Such a talk as I am giving you now,' 1 Dr Lawson said, “ would bo dangerous in Italy; for the professor there has to take an oath to the Government, and may be dismissed if ho puts himself ” (so the formula runs) “ into a position of incompatibility with the general political tendencies of the Government.” There is no more liberty in Germany, where the scene shows “ once again war preparations, drilling, unity, and the muzzling of Press, pulpit, and professors.” Consequently we read that today “ shadows have fallen upon the onco proud German universities. Independence has been crushed in their professors . . . the black gown of the scholar has been humbled by the brown shirt of the student Storm Trooper.” Their prestige has gone in proportion as they have been made political. The Press has suffered no less. More than 600 German newspapers have ceased to exist since Hitler came into power. The public prefers foreign papers, when it can get them, to the rest, which contain nothing but innumerable speeches of public officials and summaries of official decrees, with such other news as cannot be imagined by the most jealous Government to have a political complexion. Dr Goebbels took the Press to task last February for restricting itself too much in its fear of officialdom. “It is either anarchist and destructive, or cringing as a lapdog,” ho complained. “It criticises everything or nothing.” He urged a golden mean—“ independent, noble, well-mean-ing criticism of new measures, intermingled with constructive and sound advice ”; but the Press has preferred not to take risks. As we write, it is announced that Herr Von Papon’s “ wellmeaning criticism ” will not require his resignation, which might involve that of the Foreign Minister, Baron Von Neurath, a non-Nazi by origin, but a fireeater. The Vice-Chancellor has admitted an indiscretion. This time he has been pardoned for it. But when such statements haVe been uttered once by a German Minister it is certain that they will be muttered by millions of others, having their own effect, till the time comes when those can cry them aloud with impunity.