POLITICAL ASPIRATIONS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 November 1939, Page 7

POLITICAL ASPIRATIONS

GREAT CONFUSION OF IDEAS IN GERMANY. PACT WITH RUSSIA RESENTED. A correspondent of a Swiss newspaper is quoted in “The Times” as writing that he found little belief in or hope for democracy in the ordinary sense of the word in Germany. Among the opponents of the regime he found vague hopes of a future State without, the present features of mass movements and mass organisation. They were longing for more "personal” rule. On these critics the effect of the Russian pact was twofold. Some declared their disgust with all systems of dictatorship, and others were attracted by the old idea of co-operation between Germany and the East. The old slogans against capitalism—used by both Nazis and Communists in their time—were* reappearing. Quite a number of working men were discussing the possibility of a synthesis of Communism and National Socialism. In southern Germany, and to a certain extent in the west, the old federalist feelings against centralisation and Prussianism were reviving, particularly in aristocratic and church circles. In the north the idea of a Socialist Continental bloc against England was found popular among officers and Prussian commercial circles. But in all parts of the country there was strong resentment at the outraging of certain fundamental human rights, and in the south people were heard to ask why the British did not drop bombs instead of leaflets “to bring this country to its senses.”