THE NAZI GOMPLEX

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 690, 16 November 1933, Page 7

THE NAZI GOMPLEX

HITLERISM HAS NOT GAINED GROUND RECENTLY. WJHAT WILL FUTUR© BBlNG? The observer of Libefal oqtlook living at the heart of the German eruption finds it no easy taslc to preserye a balaneed attitude towards the Nazi .movement. Jn his mind the onslaughts upon freedom and the pitiless p.ersecution of a defenceless minority must arouse doubts as to the worth of Nazi ideals, or the substance of the achievements Nazis boast of. ' Has there so far been a constructive side in Niazi. aetivities ? At present the unchallenged masters of Germany/ will their power wane or be lasting ? writes John C. Segrue, Berlin correspondent of a famous London journal. Do the abnormal conditions prevailing in their country give satisfaction to the mass of Germans, to those, that is, who do not belong to the order of the outlawed? To these questions an answer may be attempted- now that we are within sight of the completion of. the first ■six months of Nazi Government.

Th& facts of the German situation are extnaordinarily diffiicult to sift. The Pxess is manacled; even the mild- ' est criticism within Germany is forbidden; opponents of the Government still go in dread. To what extent Germany's flagwaving, song-singing and joyous marching are genuine and to what extent they iare the work of Dr. Goebbels, the Minister for Propaganda, and Europe's astutest agent for publicity, is not to be ascertained Afber six months the tremors of the political earthquake that rocked Germany are subsiding, but :a dark7 ness as of the thick forest on a moonless night still overhangs the land. Foreign Politics. In the list of achievements that Dr. Goe'bhels from time to time requires the German Press to publish Nazi exploits in foreign politics are rarely referred to. Yet in this field they can rightly claim some success. The pact with the Vatican negotiated whilst priests were being rounded up in Bavaria was a skilful piece of diplomatic work. Under the Nazi Chancellor Germany's relations with Poland have improved. The Polish Corridor is no longer mentioned in Nazi polemical literature. The first step of the Nazis on attaining power in Danzig was to send an embassy of peace to Warsaw. Under the guidance of Herr von Neurath, a non-Nazi, the present rulers ' of Germany have shown themselves to be realists in the field of foreign affairs. At home, their outstanding achievement has been to entrench and fortify their position. Every lever in the

oomplicated machine of the State is now in their hands. No position is too insignificant for a Nazi to fill. I think the Chaneellor's personal position is stronger than when the regime started. His personality and his policy still occasionally glow to the youth of Germany, and his influence is considerable with th'e unromantic middle-aged. He is the link between the armed forces and the new Germany. It is notorious that the Army does not greatly like the Nazi movement, and opponents of the Government are disposed to build upon this hostility. Always the Nazi. Wherever Germans gather in an organised group — for prayer, on the tennis courts, at chess tournaments, as hikers — there will be the watchful land attentive Nazi. An energetic offensive against unemployment has been launched, although far too rosy a picture of its results has been dqawn by Nazi propagandists. The labour camps— scheme taken over from previous Governments — (by removing- th'ousands of unemployed youths from the streets or "mean homes, must be accounted Jt praiseworthy social experiment. There has been ruthless war upon mendicancy. Th'e beggars who infested the big cities have mostly vanished. A moral 'elean-up is being attempted. Dubious establishments have been suppressed; dubious advertisements are no longer published in the newspapers. The vicious side of night-life is fading out as the result of police riaids. But I think that any general who tried to lead the troops against the present Chancellor would be guilty of a deadly miscalculation. In the industrial field there has heen no conseious betrayal of labour to the .capitalist. The lot of the worker in Nazi Germany is not a comfortable one, yet the employer too must submit to an iron discipline. There is a touch of comedy in the Nazi campaign to persuade hardGerman business men that in business the "interests of the community must go hefore th'e interests of the individual." With wry faces the other day •at Leipzig 4000 Saxon industrialists and" hankers listened to a lecture from ia Nazi on this theme. Despite the Chaneellor's enhanced prestige, the Nazi movement has not, I fancy, made headway during the last six months. Germans find the ■strait-jacket irksome. Grumblers are legion. The workers stand aloof. Th'e capacity of the Nazi leaders to solve Germany's many prohlems is doubted. The plight of the Jews provokes commiseration; And the future. It is not to he supposed that a great people like the Germans will permanently acquiesce in the loss of iall liberty, but on the other hand, changes as the result of an upheaval are not probable. Undiluted Hitlerism must pass, and at is possible that Adolf Hitler himself will hring about the transition to more tolerable conditions. The democratic repuhlic has gone for good and

the dangers of Communism still frequently evoked are a tale of goblins intended to scare the uninitiated. The German pendulum may finally come to rest in a middle position. The ideal of a revived monarchy on constitutional lines, with Adolf Hitler as Chancellor for life, greatly attracts Nazi youth. Destiny miay be preparing a lofty niche for the exCrown Prince, the friend of the Jews.