GERMAN PLEBISCITE

Waikato Times, Volume 122, Issue 20513, 1 June 1938, Page 8

GERMAN PLEBISCITE

NO SECRECY A VOTER’B REVELATIONS (Times Air Mall Service) LONDON, April 14 The following letter has been received by the News Chronlole from i German plebiscite voter in Wurtemberg. The editor has omitted th« writer’s name, for obvious reasons “Dear Sir, —Reich Governor SeyssInquart said when he Informed the Leader in Berlin of the results of the Austrian polling over the wireless: ‘ln Austria the voting proceeded In orderly fashion. Every man and every woman could vote in oomplete liberty.* "This does not apply in Germany. In the provincial and Gau, oapital of Wurtemberg, the well-known city of the ‘Germans Abroad,’ Stuttgart, and in a number of other places In WUrtemberg the vote was not secret. “At a secret plebiscite every voter has the right to fill out his voting paper in a partition soreened with black cloth, without it being available to anyone else. No Partitions “In Stuttgart there was soareely one such partition in the many hundred polling booths, although the responsible authorities—the municipal office of works—had ordered and prepared the material for these partitions exactly in accordance with the electoral regulations. ‘‘There was a party official In Stuttgart who considered it unnecessary that the vote should be secret. "The voters had to fill out their voting papers on an open table upon which pencils lay close by the eleotoral officials.” “In front of the table a Storm Trooper patrolled up and down or a party leader in uniform. The adjaoent electoral officials looked on (they were all in uniform and belonged to the party). "Other voters looked on, and the plebiscite was taken in public. There was no question of secrecy. The consequence was that individuals ware careful not to vote ‘No’ for fear of the consequences. Show How They VoUd “The same Is reported from othor plaoes In Wurtemberg, and this Is a reason to dispute the plebiscite because It was not oarrled out according to regulations. “Reich Governor Murr (Stuttgart), in whose voting booth a screen partition had been ereoted, ignored It and voted openly. “Women who did not seem to have muoh experience were told: ‘You must fill In here.’ Sometimes voters were asked to take out their voting forms when they had already been put in the envelope, and to show r whether they had done It properly.’ “Old ladles who might have made their little cross on the voting papers quite well themselves had obliging Storm Troopers ready to make the cross on the voting paper for them. “The division into voting districts in Stuttgart, which was previously the business of the municipal authorities, Is now in the hands of the local party group. “Persons who did not vote were fetched from their houses to the polls by groups of Storm Troopers (somotimes six-men strong).”