WAR-TIME GERMANY

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20058, 3 October 1939, Page 7

WAR-TIME GERMANY

NEUTRAL’S IMPRESSION NAZI MACHINE FAILS IGNORANCE—DESPAIR (Elec. Tel.’Copyright—United Press Assn.) (British Official Wireless.) Reed. 1.50 p.m. ' RUGBY, Oct. 1. Under the heading, ‘ neutral traveller’s impression,” a bulletin issued by the Ministry of Information, states: A traveller, a neutral —who recently returned from Austria to France writes: “The impressions I got in Germany were appaling. Here was a country going to war like a sleepwalker with a loaded gun in his hand. Two-thirds of the population knew or pretended to know nothing. The remaining third were prey to defeatism and despair.

“I cannot say that food is actually short, but I was astonished to see the complete breakdown of the Government machine. Thus, in Vienna, a city of 2,000,000 inhabitants, no police were to be seen. The Austrian police have been dissolved and nobody has been appointed in their place. All around me, I heard nothing but complaints about Nazi tyranny and fears for the future. It is true that Austria presents a’ special case, but when travelling through purely German provinces, the tone of the conversa tion was the same.

-What a relief it was to get back to France. I do not know what Ihe future has in store for us or what the outcome may be of the catastrophe that has overtaken us, but I am certain that on the other side of the Rhine I have seen a country ripe for defeat, while here I see a people confident and worthy of victory.

“There can be no mistake. I am well aware of the material resources of Germany and of the fanaticism which has actuated hundreds of thousands of its young men, but folly and lies are self-destructive and Germany to-day is a realm of folly and lies.

“I find in France quite a remarkable comprehension of the situation among all classes and an unshakeable resolution to put an end to this business once and for all.”