Wairarapa Times-Age SATURDAY, AUGUST 2, 1941. MISGIVINGS IN GERMANY.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 August 1941, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age SATURDAY, AUGUST 2, 1941. MISGIVINGS IN GERMANY.

ACCORDING to a London “Times” correspondent on the German frontier, “widespread latent opposition to the Hitler regime has become more artienlate and is rolling like a snowball through the Reich.” There is no reason Io doubt the Irnth of these reports and others of a similar nature, but their precise significance for the time being is another matter. As they have been described in detail by recent first-hand observers, conditions in Germany undoubtedly are capable of developing to a point at which they would undermine the Nazi gang and contribute materially to its downfall, but this development no doubt is dependent on the heavy defeat of the military forces of the Reich on land and sea and in the air.

One neutral observer who gave in an oversea newspaper an account of a journey made through Germany not long ago spoke of severe deprivations and hardships endured by the people and observed that the talk about invading England which dominated everything at the beginning of IIHO was no longer heard. Neither was anything heard about quick victory.

To a stranger in the train or place of amusement, (he added) Germans are naturally sure of winning. . . . But if you get a German alone, he will most likely admit that he has begun to feel nervous, wondering what has become of all the Fuehrer’s promises. The chances are that he will shake his head, if a little mellow, and say that “if we don’t win by September the devil only knows what may be expected, as we can hardly manage another -war winter.”

Before the British air offensive had developed its present magnitude, -which is only an earnest of yet greater things to follow, and before Russia had been added Io the list of Germany’s enemies, misgivings and despondency were already widespread in the Reich. Of this there is good evidence and it may easily be believed that the events of the last month or two have done a great deal to intensify fears and latent opposition to the Nazi regime. It is stated, too, that industrial output, on account of lack of adequate nutrition and the disturbance and destructive effect of air raids, has sunk by 25 to 30 per cent.

Many observers are agreed, however, that it would be foolish to expect war-weariness, fears and despondency in Germany to lead in 1 hemselves to a national collapse, much less to a revolt against the Nazi regime. Full account has to be taken of the fact that the Germans, who have enslaved so many nations, are themselves enslaved and that the Gestapo as yet has lost nothing of its ruthless efficiency. Another factor which makes for passive endurance of war burdens and submission to the ruling regime is fear of the consequences of defeat. One gets the impression, a neutral observer wrote recently,

that many who do not believe in Hitler hope nevertheless for victory as the only means to avoid the terrors to be expected from a German defeat and from the universal hate the Hitler campaigns have generated for things German.

The only key io the situation for Britain and her Allies obviously is the military defeat of Germany. So long as the Avar outlook holds or seems to hold even a measure of uncertainty, misgivings. depression, and even incipient panic in the Keich will be factors of doubtful importance. It seems possible, however, that once the Allies have established a definite and unmistakable military ascendancy and the final and crushing defeat of the Nazi hordes has become visibly only a matter of time, events inside Germany, as well as in the countries she has occupied, may do a good deal to hasten victory.