GERMAN NATIONALIST AIMS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2224, 8 January 1921, Page 4

GERMAN NATIONALIST AIMS.

The view that the German Nationalists look forward to the eventual collapse of the British Empire, and will use every means in their power to bring it about, was recently presented by a correspondent of the London Times, who has: spent the last six years in Germany, and was in touch at times with members of the extreme reactionary party. He states that to anyone who follows the course of German political thought, as reflected in the German press, it is obvious that the Nationalist parties, far from acquiescing in their defeat, are scanning the political horizon for signs favourable to the pursuit of their old ambitions. Should they succeed in making a friend of Russia they would be half-way to the realisation of a project which they have very much at heart, the foundation of a European League of Nations, with Germany as the predominant partner. A union with Russia once achieved, the next step would be to detach France and Italy from the Bbtente. Herr Stinnes is accused by the Freihcit, the organ of the Independent Socialists, of a far-reaching scheme for uniting French and German coalfields in one huge concern under the control of French and German capitalists. Already German economists are urging that a closer economic union between France and Germany is in the interests of both nations, that a prosperous Germany is the best customer for those articles of luxury which France delights to produce, and that neither Amciiea with her prohibition nor England with her heavy import duties can compensate France for the lo*s of Germany as a customer for French wines. The cleavage in the SocialDemocratic Party, which prevents the formation of a strong Socialistic Government, tends to the strengthening of the reactionary parties in Germany. The control of so large a proportion of tin.* press by men life Stinnes, who i- rumoured to. have bought up about 70 newspapers, furthers their plans: while some people .see in the roeent nuineiou> discharges of workmen a deliberate challenge on the part of German capitalists to the proletariat, flu English people should realise that the German Nationalists have no place for England in any schemes that they may elaborate for the future. They would deliberately exclude her from any combination of European States which they might achieve. In the words of Count Reventlow, the mouthpiece of the extreme Conservative Party, she has played the part of vampire on the Continent in the past, therefore in (lie future her influence must he eliminated.