GERMANY'S SECRET ARMY.

Shannon News, 14 January 1927, Page 3

GERMANY'S SECRET ARMY.

SERIOUS CHAEGES MADE BY SOCIALIST PAPER. ! Berlin, November 23. ' TJie most serious charge yet brought against the Reichswehr authorities has f appeared in the Socialist "Breslauer Volkswacht," a newspaper understood to be closely in touch with Herr Lobe, tho President of the Reichstag, who has placed himself at the head of the movement for the reform of the recruiting system. The '' Volkswacht' ' asserts that} an illegal reserve, or "Black Reichswehr," exists in Silesia at the present time, and is partly, but only partly, supported by such funds as those recently collected by Reichswehr officers from industrial and commercial employers' associations in Breslau for the financing of "gymnastic instruction" of the "civilian population." , The newspaper says that it has never been inclined to place material at the disposal of the French Nationalists, but, on the other hand, it finds just as little pleasure in seeing the Reichswehr employing the taxpayers' money and funds obtained by begging to assist the domestic political schemes of the extreme Right. The information now published hf., long been in the possession of the Socialist Party, together with more that has not yet been published. The disclosure is justified on what would seem to be the erroneous assumption that the negotiations with regard to military control have reached a stage at which the secret associations are admitted to play no further part in foreign political affairs. The information available proves, it is added, that the activities of the illegal units in Silesia are devoted exclusively to the domestic campaign of the "Radicals of the Right." "District Officers." The "Volkswacht" states that in every country district of Silesia and in the larger urban districts the Reichswehr has a "district officer" with an office of his own, who is not on the official strength. In the Province of Lower Silesia, it is asserted, there are

forty of these officers, for whom there is no provision in the estimates. The task of the officers' is to recruit illegal reserves, who are trained on the Army parade ground at Neuhanimer. It so * happens; the "Volkswacht" continues, that all these officers belong to the extreme Right. In order that the Reichswehr Ministry may always be able to deny that there is any connexion with political associations, these officers resign from such organisations as the Stahlhelm (Steel Helmet organisation) before taking up their appointments, but the resignations are said to be merely matters of form. The district officers remain in close touch with the extreme Nationalist organisations, and obtain their recruits solely from these organisations. A number of examples are given with names. In Brieg, it is explained, the "black" district officer of the Reichswehr left the Stahlhelm when he received the appointment. In the Wohlau district the. appointment is held by a captain who forms his illegal units at gatherings attended exclusively by members of the Stahlhelm. The recruits are told that they are to be trained for the protection of the frontier against Polish aggression. According to the "Folkswaeht," the activities of the local officer at Liegnitz_ have already 'been brought to the notice of the Ministry through the competent Reichstag Committee, but no steps whatever have been taken in consequence. The newspaper states that it has in its possession orders issued by several lof these /district officers summoning "trained and untrained -men" to courses of instruction in the use of arms on Reichswehr ground. Absolute silence as to the real nature of these courses is enjoyed; the men are ordered to describe them as "sport lectures." So many civilians are stated to have witnessed the drilling of these men that any denial of the strictly military character of the training could easily be refuted. The "Volkswacht" declares that the funds collected this year and last from the employers' organisations were not nearly sufficient even to support the widespread organisation of district officers, quite apart from the training of the illegal detachments. Clearly, it says, the Reichswehr Ministry have appropriated funds designated for some other purpose in the estimates. ~ jj