Wairarapa Times-Age SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1939. THE VOICES OF GERMANY.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 November 1939, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1939. THE VOICES OF GERMANY.

CABLEGRAMS yesterday gave several distinct and strikingly contrasting accounts of the war outlook of the German people. An official propagandist was quoted as declaring, in effect, that Germany was fighting with full confidence and that it. would be time enough to discuss peace terms when British supremacy had been destroyed. On the'other hand, it was reported that the British independent Labour Party had received a message from the German Independent Socialists giving details of terrible economic conditions. The Germans (it was stated) declared that the food rations were insufficient for the preservation of health, that the miseiy of the working class was great, and that the people did not want wal -. Underground organisations were fighting by leaflet and radio for peace and the liberation of the races brought under Herr Hitlers domination. It is hardly in doubt that the conditions in which the working masses in Germany are existing are quite as deplorable as is here alleged. The lot of the German workers was bad enough before the outbreak of war and it goes without saying that it is now much worse than it was. Economic resources ol: all kinds were already inadequate while peace still reigned and the brunt of the heavy additional call made upon these resources lor the prosecution of the war and for war production inevitably tails on the workers and their families. In a book of very recent date in which he makes an extended examination of statistical and other evidence as to the condition of the workers in Great Britain, Germany and Soviet Russia Mr. Jurgen Kueynski gives an impressive account of what has befall.an the German workers under Nazi rule.- The intensity of work, he observes, is very much higher in Germany than in Great Britain. Industrial accidents have increased very much more in Germany than in Great Britain, and while the state of health (because of terrible working conditions, low wages and food shortage) is worse in Germany than in Great Britain, facilities for recuperating are also worse in Germany than in Britain. While the German worker spends more of his working strength, is exposed to increasing risks, and suffers from deteriorating health, his wages have remained around the crisis level of 1932. But (Mr. Kuczynski adds), if careful statistical investigation, based on official German statistics, reveals that real wages have not changed materially since the depth of the crisis in 1932 was reached —non-statistical evidence on the quality of the goods sold in Germany indicates that even if he (the worker) gets for his wage the same quantity of goods, yet their quality is worse than it was in 1932. The balance sheet of the development of labour conditions under Fascism is thus as follows: — Purchasing power of earnings about the same as in 1932. But: Quality of goods bought worse; Need for more goods because of greater intensity of work; Need for more goods because of deterioration in health conditions; Longer hours of work; Greater accident risks; Worse social services; Loss of liberties won during the last hundred years. It is highly characteristic, also, of the conditions meted out b\ the Nazi dictatorship to the workers that huge reserves built up in social insurance and other funds to which the workers make compulsory contributions are taken over in State loans to be expended on armaments. Willi the welfare and. as a necessary amt natural consequence, the morale of the German working people sapped to the extent indicated by apparently unimpeachable evidence, it may well he believed that not. only these workers, but other sections of the population as well are eager and anxious to see the war brought to an end. The active agents and supporters ol the Nazi tyranny, as distinct from those who have submit led passively to its authority, have never been more than a comparatively small minority of the German nation. Short of the possible Bolshevisal ion of the country, which is a danger 1o be recognised, there are possible alternatives to Nazi rule in Germany. The plight of the working people, in its vital bearing on the ability of tin 1 nation to withstand the strain of war, may command the attention, if only on grounds of prudence, even of those in whom it fails to awaken leelings of compunction and compassion. There are mi means at present of estimating the precise value ol reports that the army leaders, for example, are contemplating action which would entail the overthrow of Nazi gan.gsterdom and open the way Io peace, but that it is wholly in the interests of Germany as a nation I hat action should be taken on these lines is not lor a moment in doubt