CHILD INSTRUCTION

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 644, 23 September 1933, Page 3

CHILD INSTRUCTION

GERMAN POLtCY ASTONISHING HANDBOOK OF HORRORS FOR 1NFANTS. GUIDE TO WARFARE. (Berlin, Saturday. War is the finest test of will and •ability. It isn't criminal and it isn't extraordinary. The Government should not support I the Church uriless it strengithens the I soldier's mind. The dying warrior 1 dies- easier if he knows that his blood ebbs for a National God. These astonishing assertions are eontained in a handbook of nxilitary science for use in the schools of Germany and entitled "The Child's Guide to Warfare." j Its author, Professor Ewald Banse, I who favours the spread of typhus and plague, contends that war is inevi- ! table, and therefore the national mind from childhood must be impregnated with military psychology. Prpfessors generally are playing a ■significant part in the militarisation of Germany, and the, Press has been instructed not to report the creation' of chairs of Military Science in the universities. I j The handbook shows how lakes and other physical configurations are destinpd to influence the movement of troops, and 'illustrates how even birds, animals, climate, and vcgetation have m'ilitary significance. | 'feanse refuses to paint war in rose ! colours and admits that it is a ques'tion of gas, plague, hunger, poverty, baseness and falsehood, which means that only a nation convinced that every member's life belongs to the State, can endure it. Breeding Soldiers. Banse suggests that military science should be interwoven in all forms of instruction for children of tendcr j ages, forming a separate part of the j' curriculum. j Children over 12 should practise ! field exercises, war games andi musketry, and the Government must give ! warlike individuals the most favour- *" able conditions in which to live and " procreate.

It must deliberately practise ' military eugenics," grafting their ideal types on less warlike classes. A propaganda organisation must be prepared in peace-time to influence probable neutrals, and break down their hostility. 1 Typhus and Plaguie'. 1 The hook describes bacteriological J warfare as undoubtedly the weapon ! of a nation disarmed and rendered defenceless. j The main methods are the infection ' of water with typhus, the introduction of typhus by means of fleas, and of I plague by means of artificially infected rats. The League of Nations had sancti- | moniously forbidden such warfare, I but it could not complain if the dis- | armed nation used it to destroy its § oppressors. Every method was per- | m'issible to resist and vanquish a I superior enemy. | Banse insists that the verdict of | war is the highest f orm of justice, but 1 inconsistently denounces the verdict 1 of Versailles.