Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, AUGUST 29, 1940. NAZI LEGENDS UNDER TEST.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 August 1940, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, AUGUST 29, 1940. NAZI LEGENDS UNDER TEST.

the most direct view, the present course of the war is of good promise from the point of view of Britain and the nations she is pledged to re-establish in freedom. An unbroken blockade, the smashing defeat of German air armadas launched against Britain, and bombing attacks of ever-increasing intensity and effect on enemy and occupied territory are visibly opening the road to ultimate victory, though the length of that, road has yet to be determined. With the struggle still extending indefinitely, however, it is just as important not to exaggerate the power and resources of the enemy as to fall into the. opposite error of under-estimating these factors. It is a matter of practical wisdom to stint nothing in effort and in preparation until victory has been won, but this certainly does not mean that there should be a credulous acceptance of the enemy’s own propagandist estimate of his fighting and lasting power.

As a British Ministry of Information brochure' points out, the legends of present and past German invincibility the Nazis have done their utmost to popularise are simply lies. Asserting, with a view to current and continuing effect, that the German Army was not beaten in 1918, but was “stabbed in the back,” the Nazis are seeking to cover up historical facts embodied in German official records. These facts are set out in some detail in a recently published book, “How to Conquer Hitler,” the. authors of which are two exiled Germans, Hellinut von Rauschenplatt and Hilda Monte. The legend of defeat by treachery, these writers point out, completely disregards the admission by General Ludendorff, in the middle of August, 1918, that a German military victory had by then become impossible, ft is true that the Allied blockade had reduced a large part of the German population to semi-starvation and war-weariness, but never!helss it was not the civil but the military front which cracked first. Oii September 29. 1918, the Hindenburg Line was completely broken north of St. Quentin and on the same day Germany’s ally, Bulgaria, surrendered. Hindenburg and Ludendorff then jointly appealed to the Kaiser to sue immediately for peace. The facts are on record in a dispatch penned by Hindenburg on October 3, 1918:—

The Supreme Command adheres to his demand, made on Sunday, September ■ 29, for the immediate despatch of the peace offer to our enemies. Owing to the breakdown on the Macedonian front, whereby a weakening of our reserves in the west is necessitated, and in consequence of the impossibility of making good our very heavy losses in the battles of the last few days, there no longer exists any prospect, according to human calculation, of forcing peace upon our enemies. . . . The position gets worse every day ... In these circumstances it is imperative to break off the battle in order to spare the German people and its allies further useless sacrifices.

Hindenburg, it is observed, made no reference to treachery, for the simple reason, that the German Revolution did not, begin until November 9, after Germany’s leaders had agreed to capitulate.

While they deny emphatically that Germany was stabbed in the back in the last war, the authors of “How to Conquer Hiller” —two members of the ant i-llitler front who reached England a few days before the outbreak of war—declare that, Nazi Germany, despite frantic attempts at unification, contains all the germs of disunity. Thousands of German workers, the authors claim, only await opportunities of committing industrial sabotage. Therefore air attacks are. advocated on key industries and on railway junctions—just such attacks as British bombing squadrons are now making by day and night—“to offer good opportunities to railway workers, who are prepared to commit acts of sabotage.”

For a time hopes of this kind appeared to be extinguished by the collapse of France and the wide extension of the Nazi invasion of European countries. It may be unwise to count upon any effective revolt in Germany or even upon a measure of collapse that would undermine the Nazi military effort. Good reasons appear, however, for adhering to the opinions expressed by Mr Winston Churchill in a speech he made, as First Lord of the Admiralty; in January hist:—

\ I cannot rid my mind of the feeling (Mr Churchill said on that occasion) that the Imperial Germany of 1914 was a stronger community than the Nazi Germany which now confronts us. Fifty years of pride and victory, of prosperity and wealth, lay behind the Kaiser's assault upon Belgium and France, and the whole German people sprang to arms with enthusiasm and ardour. The haggard, hard-driven party regime which the Nazis have raised and reared from defeat and hatred may function for a time with terrible precision, but whether it has the same solidity or power to endure reverses which was shown by the Kaiser’s Germany is yet to be proved, and we mean to put it to the proof.

It is by no means inconsistent with a firm resolution to prosecute the war with all possible vigour, but rather should be regarded as part and parcel of that resolution, to believe, as Mr Gordon Young, a well-known European correspondent, who speaks from persona] acquaintance with Germany under the Nazi regime, suggested not long ago in a letter to “The Times,” that “the Germans may be much nearer to the end of their tether and much more worried than they appear to be, especially in view of this year's bad European harvests and of the magnificent work of the Allied air forces in destroying Nazi petrol supplies and aeroplanes.”

PENNIES FOR AEROPLANES.

'J'IIERE is not much doubt that if it is carried into effect, the

proposal advanced by a correspondent (Major Stanley Fletcher, M.C.), whose letter appears in another column today, will result in a considerable sum being raised in this country for the purchase of British fighter planes. The proposal is that a new issue of stamps should carry a surcharge of a penny to be applied to the purchase of planes. It is, of course, lor the Government to adopt or reject, this project. As matters stand, a limit of £lOO,OOO has been imposed on. the New Zealand contribution to be made for the purchase of planes and the collection, which has already touched high figures in several centres, is to terminate next month.

One reason given by the Government for limiting' the New Zealand fund lor the purchase of planes is that it. will not result in. the construction of a single additional plane. Britain, it is pointed out, will in any ease produce planes to the full extent ol her manufacturing capacity. This is true, but inconclusive. It does not follow that in helping to pay for planes New Zealand would not assist Britain’s war effort in a useful and acceptable way.

An objection that may be raised is that the sale of surcharged stamps proposed by our correspondent would conflict, with the annual sale of Health stamps, by means of which funds are raised with which to finance children’s health camps. An effort, most certainly should be made to raise the funds that will enable the health camps to be kept going, and in existing circumstances it may not be easy fo do this by the methods that have been relied upon, and which have served their purpose. hitherto.

The question of the collection of money for the purchase of aeroplanes, particularly as if bears on the raising of patriotic hinds, has now been raised by the Wellington Provincial Patriotic Council. The whole position needs clearing up. It will no doubt he agreed that among the obligations this country has assumed or is assuming, that which we owe Io the members ol our fighting forces ought to take first place. .Just what scope is to be offered in one way and another for popular and spontaneous war effort presumably must be determined by the Government, account being taken of expressed and indicated public opinion.