The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times FRIDAY, APRIL 29, 1932. THE PRUSSIAN ELECTION.

Hokitika Guardian, 29 April 1932, Page 4

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated the West Coast Times FRIDAY, APRIL 29, 1932. THE PRUSSIAN ELECTION.

The result of the Prussian election, niiicii gives t-ne ‘'.\az,s” increased ! represent ca tion in the Diet hut allows I the Uiiiniminists the hauime of power, siiould lie sufficiently gratifying to LL'c/rr Hitler. Since lie continues, wisely, as it appears, in his own interests., and certainly mercifully ill the interests of Germany, to seek to iucreaae his strength by constitutional means, he could not have expected, as .an exchange points out, with rue result of too presidential election as an. example, to gain control of the .1 'ru.vsian Diet. Yet a partial victory, which is not displeasing to him, need not lie distressing to moderately minded Germans who distrust Hitlerism and fear Communism, nor to European nations which believe that tiie advent of the “Nazis” to power might lead to the disruption of the German Republic. Pi ussia is traditionally the stronghold of the Junkers, and, with the post-war decline of the fighting nobility, it lias been more willing than other States to answer the stirring if somewhat hollow call of the “Nazis.” A disposition to militaristic as opposed to political action probably explains the partiality of the Prussians towards Hitlerism. Thus the failure of Herr Hitler to obtain a clear majority in the Prussian Diet is no less significant that hjs success in absorbing, as he lias apparently done, the parties of the Right. His revolt against the ostab,ished order in Geimanv has won him a tremendous following, but even in the .Suite, which might have been expected to be most easily enlisted to it, the response lias been y I low a to be by no means wholehearted. ' There is, indeed, ample ground for the surmise that Herr Hitler is a Iprey to indecision, the one ailment which, above all others, may prove dangerous to tile demagogue. His “programme,” as has been frequently remarked, is barren of constructive thought, and relics mainly upou us challenge to the present regime. His active half million followers are not entirely undivided in their aspirations, one faction favouring constitutional methods, the other direct action, as the better means of achieving their object. This suspicion of a variance of opinion, among the “Nazis” must have th ft .effect of making the millions of c.( jriuan middle-class, sympathisers with Herr Hitler half-hearted in his support. The fact that the eomj.ndsory disbandment of the “Nazi” Ynilitant organisation has, apparently, met with no opposition, suggests that its leader is not sufficiently strong to resist, or, as a cable message suggested is relieved at the removal of the threat to constitutional methods of obtaining power that was embodied in the existence of this warlike and presumably intractable following. It, he has elected to proceed by peaceful means he will he forced to obtain the eo operation of other parties, or to control himself in patience. In either ease, the menace of Hitlerism is related more to the vague future than to the present. Such respite as Germany obtains through the restraining of Herr Hitler in the meantime is import-ant. The crisis in her affairs can best be handled to the benefit of Europe, no less than |of the Republic itself, by those now in authority.