BAVARIA TO-DAY.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 July 1922, Page 5

BAVARIA TO-DAY.

MONARCHIST SCHEMING, HOME OF REACTION. INTRIGUE AND MURDERS, By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. London, July 8. A dark picture of the sinister influences underlying Bavarian life to-day is drawn by the Times special correspondent at Munich, who states that underneath the veneer of gaiety, not penetrated by thousands of pleasureseeking English and American tourists, Bavaria is the home of reaction and Munich its centre. Its liveliness conceals a life of political intrigue, inspired by a ruthlessness compared with which Russian Nihilism seems a mere childish passion. Here German thoroughness has devoted itself to the organisation of political terrorism on a sound commercial basis. Munich is the city from which murderers are financed, equipped and helped to cover up their tracks at the conclusion of their deadly work. For instance, Count Arco murdered Herr Eisner. He was declared insane and supposed to have been confined in an asylum. Many assert that he is enjoying full liberty on parole. Not one of his accomplices has been punished owing to the connivance of prominent members of the police and judiciary. In the crimes directed against prominent Republicans this underground world holds the real life, of the city. The highest representatives of the Republic calls for cheers for King Rupprecht and is not criticised. The big shops in the main street devote their windows to the glorification of royal reviews of Bavarian troops without protest. Every Sunday there is a fresh Monarchist demonstration or military parade with Imperialistic pomp, but the Republican flag can only be hoisted in the presence of a strong guard to protect it from insult and destruction. Every phase of city life is controlled by the secret police. The Allied disarmament Commission is subjected to a complete system of espionage. The business of every caller is known to the reactionaries. Any stranger ' visitors are liable to be catechised before an inquisitorial council. Reactionary propaganda is now b4ing incited against members of the Allied Commissions. Recently French officers who were visiting the police barracks in Munich were driven back by a hostile crowd, not consisting of a chance collection of peasants and shop-keepers, but of students of the university who are drilling in the district. The correspondent himself a week ago witnessed a ten minutes’ successful battle of the Republican police against a mob who were proceeding to eject French members of the Commission from a building.