GERMAN PLOT THAT FAILED.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXIII, 6 April 1926, Page 7

GERMAN PLOT THAT FAILED.

Amazing Story Recalled. WHAT PLOTTERS INTENDED. By Cable—Press Association—Copyright. Keuter’s Telegrams. (Received April 5, 10.30 p.m.) LONDON, April 5. The death of August Thyssen recalls the amazing German plan for conquering Europe and England, and exploiting all the “wasted assets of the British Empire.” This project of universal assimilation was devised at a meeting of magnates in Berlin at the beginning of the century. “It was originally pinnned for 1912,” says the “Daily Telegraph,” and was to be based on almost incredible indemnities, enabling German manufacturers, by exempt taxation for years to coino. The syndicate with twenty millions capital was to handle Canada, while the inexhaustible wealth of India was to he poured into Germany, and Dr. Thyssen’s reward was to he 30,000 of the best acres of Australia-. Unluckily for Ihe- plotters, as tho world knows, instead of reaping the profits, tho magnates' of the Fatherland were called upon, in 1915 to pay tip £200,000,000 towards tho expenses of the war. Against the expectable profits from indemnities Dr. Tliyssen Vs share was to he £200,000 as tho first instalment. He alone refused and denounced the levy as blackmail. He was warned that if he broke from the compact there would be no more war contracts or money or payment of bills already overdue. But threats did not deter him. The majority might pay as they liked, and the world might scoff at the mortification of tho greedy millionaires who sold their self respect, for a bargain of a parcel of land in tho Antipodes. In 1913, he went to Switzerland and published a remarkable pamphlet, in which he told ihe whole story, “accusing the ex-Kaiser of bamboozling his subjects and their employers _ into war, which would mean nothing but national bankruptcy.