Wairarapa Times-Age WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1939. NAZI ATROCITIES.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 November 1939, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1939. NAZI ATROCITIES.

TN the White Paper it. has issued giving authentic accounts of the treatment of German opponents of the Nazi regime in and outside concentration camps during the past two years, the British Government, states that it was reluctant to take any action that might inspire hatred and that

it was only the unscrupulous propaganda of the German Government which compelled the British Government to publish the documents, so that public opinion throughout the world might judge for itself.

The element of diffidence here implied is entirely unwarranted. Even were the Nazi dictatorship not engaging actively in lying proganda, as vile in its way as the horrors and barbarities ol the concentration camps, every decent human instinct would still demand that these abominations should be dragged into the light of day as a step towards making an end of them.

The British White Paper, in any case, is far from being an original indictment of the worse than medieval horrors ol Nazi terrorism. It is at most an addition to a wealth of wellestablished evidence on the subject already published. At the same time there need be no question of the exposure of Nazi, methods of terrorism in concentration camps and elsewhere inspiring hatred of the German people. It is or should be well understood that the Nazi concentration camps have their place in the system by which an organised minority has imposed its will on the people of Germany. The German people and those of some small States meantime subjugated are the victims of that system. It may be hoped that they are destined ultimately also to be the judges of those by whom the system has been set on foot.

Words would be wasted in denouncing the unspeakable crimes of terrorism and torture of helpless human beings of which the Nazis have been and are guilty in concentration camps and elsewhere. It is a thing never to be forgotten, however, that for every detail of these crimes Hitler and his colleagues are completely responsible. The worst infamies of the concentration camps no doubt are to be ascribed directly to the unchained ferocity of men who have sunk to a standard well below that of the brutes. These torturers, however, are only the instruments of Hitler and his gang.

It may be hoped that the natural, reaction of the average and normal German to the abominations of Nazi terrorism is much the same as that of the average and normal Briton. Frenchman or American. In Germany however, the concentration camp and its attendant and related horrors have been used with positive effect thus far as weapons of intimidation, in fear of which many millions have been reduced to submission and induced to hold their peace. The hope of better things to come rests in part on the fact that there are limits to the extent to which any great nation can be held in subjection by even the vilest and most barbarous tyranny. Throughout history the end of all violent despotisms—even that of many which have been beneficent in comparison with the Nazi dictatorship—has been downfall, and often the downfall has been swift and overwhelming.

It does not seem too much to hope that the Nazi despotism ere long will meet the appointed fate of its kind. It has maintained itself in power thus far partly by ruthless force and terrorism and partly by cold-blooded and calculated deception, particularly in raising false hopes of national enlargement and prosperity. “The German” Hitler says in “Mein Kampf, ” “has not the faintest notion of the way the nation has to be swindled if one wants mass support.” The actual achievement of the Nazis has been to reduce to a common slavery the German people and those of subjugated neighbouring States. The crimes of the Nazi regime combine with its failures to drag it down. It has brought the German nation to desperate straits and in the pact with Russia the last pretence of any sincere Nazi “ideology” has been disowned with cynical contempt. It is possible on these grounds to hope that the day of Hitler and his gang is nearly over and that before long they will be called to account for the abominations of the concentration camps and for many things besides.

“THE ROAD TO NATIONAL RUIN.”

MOST excellent little economic sermonette appears to have been preached by the Minister of Public Works, Mr Semple, to members of the Buller Farmers’ Union at the weekend. In condemning monetary manipulation leading to inflation, Mr Semple said, as he is reported : —

If you issue money without an economic background, you are travelling on the road to national ruin. To have value, money must have an economic background. If you issue money that has no substance behind it, you are on the road to inflation, which will ultimately bring a nation to its knees.

In the rest of his address, Mr .Semple enlarged on the vital necessity of enlarging annual production, and incidentally invited anyone to knock holes in (lie statement that when lhe annual volume of production goes down lhe income of the people automatically goes down with it. Probably no one will be so rash as to attempt to knock holes in the truth the Minister expressed so confidently, but it must be hoped that he will not himself be content to let the matter rest where it stands, but will insist on the national policy of the Dominion being based to the fullest extent on that truth.

Should he feel so inclined, Mr Semple may find opportunities for practical enterprise ready to his hand. He may satisfy himself very easily, for example, that there is neither economic background nor .volume of production behind the deficit of some two millions at present shown on the Dairy Industry Account. In its scope that deficit is a specific example of the inflation which the Minister roundly condemned.

Action on a greater scale also suggests itself, however. As the Reserve Bank Act has now been amended, lhe Minister of Finance is empowered to expand credit practically without limit. As Mr Semple told the Buller Farmers’ Union: “To have value, money must have an economic background." If the. quantity of money is increased and the quantity <>| goods and services that money will buy is not increased, the people of the country rwr pd w ; p be worse off, and not better off. for the :, ">er ' r "’ouev. On the strength of o’lSt.b ')!_