The Guardian (And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times.) THURSDAY, APRIL 10th, 1924. GERMAN AFFAIRS.

Hokitika Guardian, 10 April 1924, Page 2

The Guardian (And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times.) THURSDAY, APRIL 10th, 1924. GERMAN AFFAIRS.

The German elections, which are to take place on May 4th., should afford, says the New Zealand ‘‘Times”, a very valuable index, not only as to the relative strength of the various parties in the Fatherland, but as to what the world has to expect from Germany in the near futuie. For that reason, it is, perhaps, all to the good that the Nationalist Party is frankly appealing for the restoration of the monarchy though it has not yet deemed it expedient to mention the Hohenzollem in that connection. The Bavarian Nationalists, it is true, are on the other hand, pressing the claims of von Tirpitz as President Ebert’s successor. But that does not necessarily mean that there is any split in the Nationalist ranks; for it is more than probable that von Tirpitz is only put forward as a “warmingpan” until the restoration pf th? rnon-

arehy shall be an accomplished fact. It may also be to the good that the ex-Crown Prince has !>ceu allowed to return to Germany, and even to return to Berlin; because under these conditions the trial of strength between the Monarchist and the Republican parties will be the more decisive. It is well, too, that the elections have afforded the world at large an opportunity of seeing clearly what are the aims of the Nationalist People’s Party, to which the majority of the Junkers belong. “Wo are in favour,” declares the programme of this party, “of tearing to shreds the lying theory of Germany's war guilt, of breaking away from the dictatorship imposed at Versailles, of safeguarding German honour and dignity, and of training our youth to bear arms. The Rhine is Germany’s river, not Germany’s frontier; and German self-determination must be ‘one people, one empire, one emperor.’ ’’ Other objectives are the abolition of the tyranny of Parliament, loyalty to the old German flag, and the suppression of Marxists and .Jews. The whitewashing of Ludendorff at the Munich high treason trial is the more understandable and tile more significant when read in connection with the speeches delivered b.v Herr von Knilling, the Bavarian Premier. and Herr von Lersner (president of the German Peace Delegation at tho Versailles Conference) at a. mass demonstration of the “Setcl Helmet League of Front Line Soldiers,” hold at Munich last week. The league, we are told, is divided into 2500 groups—evidently very highly organised in the usual German fashion—and has over one million members. Von Lersner bad tile effrontery to describe the r l rcaty of Versailles as the most terrible weapon of oppression in tbe world’s history. It was based, lie said, on the infamous lie that Germany alone was responsible for the war. Germany would go under unless the treaty was fundamentally revised. Germany’s greatest weakness hitherto had been the disunion of the Nationalist organisation's. If these could lie united they would he able to go forward to victory. Von Knilling, tbe Prime Minister, indulged in similar language.