GERMAN RECOVERY

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 408, 17 December 1932, Page 6

GERMAN RECOVERY

TASK OF RECON STRU CTION DEMON STRATES NATIONAL COURAGE. MILITARY POWER VITAL. Germany's detennined and indefatigable building-up of .a new army is a profoundly impressive demonstration of the power of united human effort. Broken, stripped, humbled, and chained, the Germany of 1918 was a tattered caricature of the proud imperial giant of Der Tag. The Germany of to-day, stark, penurious and beset with terrific troubles, is yet the greatest Germany in history. She is greater than the pre-war Germany because her pride has been tested in the fire of humiliation, her strength tried in the titanic taslc of reeor.struction, her courage proved in the face of a desperate outlook. She has had all she could do to feed her people, to replace her vanished old trade with new, to meet even a portion of the enormous war Lills, internal and external. Yet in the midst of all these tasks, she has found time, money and energy to rebuild an army — an army with wooden guns and tin tanks, to be sure, lut one with a spirit, and an organisation worthy of the proudest nation. What does her unshakable resolve to be armed mean to the rest of the world — to England — to us? It is as irnpossible to foretell as it was in 1913', but it is foolish to leap to the conclusion that Germany armed is necesr,arily a menace to Britain, or to peace. In the first place, with all Europe armed, it is only natural and inevitable that Germany must seek to pro,iect herself. In the second place, it may be difficult, but is esential, to remember that r,ational aifiliations change rapidly, and the existance of an armed Germany may yet prove a protection to one or other of her lormer enemies against a new foe! Finally, it is certain th,at the purpoiye of the army propaganda in Ger-

many is as much to stiffen the national rnorale as actually to prepare for war. With Fascism in Italy, the leader3 of Germany believe that militarism means militancy, ,and militancy is vital to progress.