GERMANY TODAY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 July 1940, Page 9

GERMANY TODAY

HOPFS OF CONSERVATIVES BETTER RELATIONS WITH CHURCH BRITTLE AND INSECURE UNITY. The more Conservative elements of the German people, the professions and the industrial middle classes, have been so attacked and shattered by National Socialism that today, as a political force, they are of almost negligible importance, writes the diplomatic correspondent of the “Manchester Guardian.” In recent years large numbers of former Conservatives have found their way into the Nazi camp, either under pressure of material circumstances or from political, conviction. But although their party has long ceased to have an independent existence, certain groups within the Conservative ranks have contrived to maintain loose political contacts among themselves in ways unlikely to attract the attention of the ever-watchful Gestapo. The success of these efforts must not be exaggerated. The principal aim is the limited one of avoiding, as far as possible, any conflict with the Reich in the present unfavourable conditions, so as to “live and fight another day.” The army, it is hoped, will settle accounts with Nazism “after the war.” Few of these people can bring themselves to believe that military defeat must of necessity precede that settlement or any other. It is not always easy to credit the honesty of the motives underlying this attitude. With some it is no doubt an instinctive shrinking from the anticipated horrors of defeat in war. Others, untaught by experience and still unable to comprehend the essential dynamic of National Socialism, continue to hope for transformation of an undefeated Germany into a purely military and Conservative State, unpolluted -by Nazism. They hope for a peace that would leave the Reich in possession of all the really important strategic- advantages that have been procured at the expense of Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland. The Nazi leaders, although they have ordered occasional Gestapo raids, do not ap-| pear to be deeply concerned about the Conservative programme of “opposition the day after tomorrow”; a military victory, they aver, far from producing a Conservative reaction among the people, will rather enhance the prospects for a further growth and consolidation of the Nazi idea and the Nazi system. The attitude of the churches, too, strengthens the hand of the regime. The relations between (he churches and the National Socialist Government have undergone profound changes since the beginning of the war. There has been no compromise of principle or granting of concessions to the State, but the religious bodies which before September were engaged in a bitter struggle with the anti-Christian National Socialist Reich have now subordinated that struggle to what they conceive to be, during the present war crisis, the overriding need for national unity.

NIEMOLLER APPLIES TO NAVY. j| The leaders of the Confessional | movement have decided that in time ■ g of war their place is in the ranks and; | behind the Government. During the | first days of the war Pastor Nicmol-.s ler addressed a request to Hitler ask- : g ing again to be allowed to take up ai g naval command. This message was & sent upon the advice and with the approval of almost all the leading per- | sonalities of the Confessional Church, s who, urged at the same time that ec-ji/ clesiastical grievances should be for-: E gotten for the present, that agreement is should be sought on various other i> outstanding issues, and that the Church | should formally indicate its loyalty to | the regime. No organised opposition g to the regime is offered at the mo- £ ment by this body. ■ |

Within the Catholic Church, the situation is the same. The attitude of the German Catholics to the Nazi State has altered considerably since the beginning of the war, perhaps even more obviously than that of the Confessional Church members. Among the higher ranks of the Catholic clergy, a decisive majority desire to see the victory of the Reich, or at least a peace that will leave Germany’s political and military strength unimpaired. At the same time they still look to an eventual Catholic-Conserva-tive restoration.

The National Socialist State has, it seems, been able to reach an understanding with the Catholic leaders. Assurances have been given as to the status of the Church in the BohemianMoravian Protectorate and in Germany itself. The special position of the Catholic Church in Poland is also to receive due recognition. In spite of the persecution of laymen and priests by the Nazis, in spite of all the attacks upon the Christian religion, new hopes have been raised among the German Catholics as a result of these negotiations, the more so because the clergy are seriously disquieted by growing evidence of Government-fos-tered "radicalism.” Many of the leading personalities of the Catholic Church arc haunted by the spectre of a Bolshevisation of Germany carried out by the Nazis themselves, a fear which the signing of the Russo-German pact, the increasing tendency towards State Socialism, and the fiercely-wag-ed ideological war have done nothing to allay. AN INSECURE UNITY. During recent months the German hierarchy has been hard at work, deviously and directly, in the Vatican as well as among the Catholic neutrals, attempting to pave the way for a negotiated peace. Through ecclesiastical contacts in neutral countries. Catholic emissaries have been in touch with their co-religionists in France. The arguments put forward at the time of the Italian peace offensive during the early months of the war, and used again when Mr Sumner Welles came to Europe, are repeated now. The corner-stone of the agreement is to be a partial restoration of Poland and the granting of autonomy to the Protectorate. Since the beginning of the war the ranks have been closing up in Germany; divisions, if they are not healing. are being bridged over. But German unity is still far from being an accomplished fact. The process of national cohesion, moreover, is a sensitive one. The "national unity” of Germany is brittle and insecure; it is more likely to crack suddenly than the present mood exhibited by the German people would lead us to suppose. The support of the regime by the people at home will begin to crumble as soon as there are visible > signs of pressure from without. The I Nazi leaders need military victories.

They know well how unstable the mood of the masses may be; they know also the potential effects of hardships, pact in February, it was felt that the people were coming very near despair. Fear and disillusionment with the course of the war might lead to the complete collapse of that "national unity” which has been so carefully nurtured since September. The survival of the National Socialist Party depends on swiftly-attained successes in the field.