THE NEW GERMANY

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 547, 2 June 1933, Page 4

THE NEW GERMANY

Like Mussolini, Germany's Chancellor-Dictator, Adolf Hitler, arouses the extremes of adulation and hatred according to the point of view, and it is therefore extremely difficult to arrive at a fair and impartial estimate of such a man while the air is thick with the dust and smoke of the conflict which is raging round the banner he has hoisted in Germany. It is all the more interesting, therefore, to read the opinion of a dyed-in-the-wool British "Empire-\builder" like Sir Evelyn Wrench, who can hardly be charged with bias in favour of anything that smacks of the old pre-war German spirit.

Sir Evelyn cannot understand, he tells us in "The Listener," why Hitler countenaneed the anti-Jewish eampaign and he thinks it will not continue, but he does understand — and hopes the world will understand — Germany's struggle to re-create her" self, and to be equal with other»> "A new Germany is being born, led by young men, new to politics ; their views may not be our views, but they have youth behind them." Hitler as he appears in public, is youngish-looking ; "the chief thing that struck me was his entire absence of 'side' — and the fact that he is terribly in earnest." Under Hitler "the State is no longer a far-off thing." Every Nazi feels that he is a link in the chain, "of per- | sonal importance to the country." Germany as a whole is so anxious to have a strong regime that the people will swallow various features of Nazi-ism that they may not approve. "I do think it is verv imnort-

ant that we should try to see the other fellow's point of view. Remember we are watching the rebirth of a nation — a nation which has suffered greatly and is trying to evolve a new kind of civilisation. Many German friends said to me: T do not think you Englishmen realise all that we have been through. First of all, there was the war, the blockade ; then there was the 1918 revolution, since which Communism has always seemed

a very real danger to us; tnen there was the inflation crisis, when most of our life-savings went sky high; then there was the occupation of some of our towns by coloured troops. There was the f eeling that we were isolated, that our neighbours were being permitted to arm, while we were being kept in an inferior status. There was the insertion of the war guilt paragraph into the Peace Treaty.' "The secret of Hitler's coming to power has been that he has captured the imagination of young Germany. Take all those of us who have grown up since the end of the war. We feel we had nothing to say to the war, and yet we find the present generatioq of Germany being eompelled to pay for the acts of their elders. We love GermanyHerr Hitler has given us a new faith in ourselves. We think Germany has a great part to play in fighting the Bolshevik menace.

" 'Please also remember, my German friend continued, fthat ours .'is a National Socialist Party.' We are not going hack to the old system of capitalism. We think we are going to build a better civilisation — we may be wrong, but we believe it. I can assure you that the vast majority of the German nation heaved a sigh of relief that- we have got a strong man in power. We are very anxious to live on friendly terms with England. We think that Great Britain must always play a prominent part in the affairs of Europe. We do ask you not to eondemn us out of hand, despite the antiJew episode, which many of us

think was a mistake, but do try to understand what we are driving atd This is, more .or less, what friends said to me." Though his National Socialist makes great economic promises, Herr Hitler's real problems wil start when he begins to dea with the economic situation. It is by economic results that Hit-' ler and Roosevelt will be- judged in the not far future.