Wairarapa Times-Age FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1941. A MESSAGE TO GERMANY.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 February 1941, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1941. A MESSAGE TO GERMANY.

VAZI propagandists have described their broadcasts to foreign countries as “verbal bombs. they may have belter reason to applv that term to the statement lor transmission to Germany made by Mr Wendell Willkie at the close of his brief but memorable visit to England. Having said that he was purely of German descent and that his grandparents left Germany ninety years ago because they protested against autocracy ami demanded the right to live as free men. Mr Willkie added: —

I. too. claim that right. I am proud of my German blood, but I hate aggression and tyranny. Tell the- German people that my convictions are fully shared by an overwhelming majority of Americans of German descent. They, too, believe in freedom and human rights. We German-Americans reject and hate the aggression and lust for power of the present German Government.

Little as this plain-spoken declaration will be welcomed by Hitler and his fellow-gangsters, it is, from the standpoint of the friends of freedom everywhere, a good thing to be reminded in these days that there have been multitudes ot Germans in whom the spirit of freedom has awakened, although for most of them this awakening has entailed exile from their Fatherland. The possibility at least is thus suggested that the Germans as a nation may eventually be able to give some worthier account of themselves than they have given, under a series of autocracies, in demoralising and brutalising the Ide of Europe.

It is in any case a heartening fact that there are many millions of people of German descent, not only in the I nited States but in the British Empire ami other parts of the world, who. like Mr Willkie, are proud of their German blood, but hate the aggression and lust for power of the present German Government. According to the best information that can be obtained at present, the people of the Reich are still entirely subservient to their Nazi tyrants, but it has to be remembered that a large proportion of the German people are as definitely held down by methods of espionage and terrorism, as are the inhabitants of countries the Nazis have invaded and subjugated. On the last occasion on which they were permitted genuinely to vote, a large proportion of the German people voted against Hitler and his party. Against the undoubtedly firm grip the .Nazis have fastened on Germany there is to be set the fact that the}' dare not permit anything in the nature of a spontaneous and unhampered expression of popular opinion.

Whatever the Germans in Germany may do, it is not in doubt that people of German descent in other countries will play no inconsiderable part in helping to make an end of .Nazi gangsterdom. Mr Willkie was not making vain or unsupported claims when ho said that his own convictions were shared by an overwhelming majority of Americans of German descent. The investigations of a Congressional commit tee of which Mr Martin Dies is chairman have thrown clear light on the widelyextended and anti-American activities of the German-Amerivan Bund, but it is well established, too. that these activities have been of small avail. In its latest report, in which ii embodies a translation of the '’Orderly Service’’ manual of the Bund, the Dies Committee observes:—

While the committee has had the Bund under investigation for almost three years, and has, as a result of its investigation, clearly established the fact of the Bund's tielip with Nazi Germany, this is the first time that the completely military character of the organisation has been exposed. This document proves conclusively that the Bund is an absolutely militarised organisation, patterned after the ruthlessly efficient- military setup which characterises Hitler's machine in Germany. . The declared nim of the Bund and its satellite organisation's is “to create a new Germany in the new world” by bringing logetiier the people of German dc-cent in the United States, estimated to number thirty millions, into a national and Xa/ilietl group. All who have followed l lie recent history of Europe will perceive here a repetition of the tactics that were adopted l»v the Nazis in Boland, Czechoslovak!;' and elsewhere. There is a wealth of evidence, however, that the Nazi schemes in the United States are made hopeless, less bv the action of the public authorities than by the uncompromising hostility of an overwhelming proportion of the German-Anmri cans. I'Vir instance, a correspondent of the ‘' (‘hl ist iau S.-mmw Monitor” wrote recently:— Three-fifths of the inhabitants of St Louis, which is the seventh largest city in the United States, are said to be of German origin. The surrounding district, also, eonta.ns an unusually large number of settlers from Germany. Many of these Missourians have retained the German language and German wa> s Nevertheless. St Louis is a model of national unity and national loyalty. It has rejected Nazism II i i; a striking example of how .Americanism '!‘he same correspondent te|!> a similar story of Wisconsin, which has been called by many writers the most German 'state in America. Americans in Wi-.eons.in. the eorr«‘spoml«mt slot,--*., have many schools of tlieir <>wn, publish G erma in hi h gii.a papers and play an important ro|e in Wisconsin polities. The great majority of Wisconxircrs of German origin ihe add- 1 are not empathetic toward 1 : Nazism, If via: should ask any aggressive American Nazi about them, he would ■ rnfully toil y. ■. The Wisconsin Germans arc w good They're soft .. the bu'.iei the'.' make Why, the Milwaukee Steuben Swk ty c. m .:du. ' . German Jew.-: as its member,■■ z\nd m; German Day, the Milwaukee German organisations act-:.>! 1 y '-mg 1 e*d 81-" ,-imcru'a Much bs'inmiiv besides goes to show ttmt Nazi agifaforconspirators in tin- United Stall's are labouring in vain and ilm: the prim-ipal effect of their efforts is to quicken ami st is'iir’h< in ti •• miml- of th-- vast mass ot jl ;< - Amer:-'.-'.!! prop!."heir racial origins, a drlrrminat ton to help mai:;m' at; > nd of Nazism ami ail that :' stands lor.