RIVAL FACTIONS

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20911, 16 September 1939, Page 10

RIVAL FACTIONS

GERMANS IN AFRICA NAZIS AND ANTI-NAZIB The German-s-peaking section of South-West Africa is in the throes of strong pro-Nazi and anti-Nazi agitation. The National Socialists in the mandated territory, led by the German Consul in Windhoek, Dr. Lierau, who gained his spurs in Sudetenland, Dr. Hirsekorn, a naturalised lawyer and chairman of the German Parliamentary group, and Herr Dressel, president of the Deutscher Bund, recently scored an important point by amalgamating the two most important German newspapers in South West Africa, the Swakopmunder Zeitung and the Windhoeker Allgemeine Zeitung into a new daily, the Deutscher Beobatchter. This organ is “in keeping with the spirit of contemporary German ideals,” as Herr E. Dressel frankly states in the leading article of its first issue. He adds that the paper would combat “the lying campaign and hostility against the German people, the Third Reich and our Feuhrer,” and concludes with “Heil Hitler!”—somewhat remarkable in a territory where the National Socialist Parly is illegal. Anti-Nazi Publication The chief organ of the anti-Nazi section is the widely circulated Freibeitsbrief, published and edited by an anonymous group under the penname of Ulrich von Hutten, the medieval German knight and humanist who was exiled on account of his denunciation of adminstrativc and ecclesiastical abuses. These “Freedom Letters,” of which four issues have been published, indulge in violent criticism of the Nazi regime, and in sensational revelations regarding the political activities and private life of local Nazi leaders. Every issue has been mailed «at a different place and the next one will be posted in the Union. There is much guessing who the authors may be, and quite a number of people whose opposition to Nazi-ism is well known have been suspected of being connected with the publication. !t can, however, definitely be stated that all conjectures so far are without foundation. In the last issue the editors ostensibly lifted the veil and made their names known, but careful examination resulted in the statement that these names were faked to lead astray the Nazi Germans, who are most anxious to find out tbe identity of their opponents. An interview was obtained with the man behind the publication when he was on his way to Capetown—an Aryan living in South-West Africa, an ardent German patriot, who fought in the Great War as a volunteer, was twice wounded and was awarded many high decorations, including the Iron Cross, first class. This man denied rumours that he had been denounced and arrested. A friend of his, who had nothing to do with the Freiheitsbriefe, had been denounced by a well-known German resident., but no arrest had been made and the local Nazis whom he had attacked would not dare sue him for libel. Fight Against Hitlerism The South-West African Freedom Party, he declared, was in contact with other oppositional groups abroad. They themselves were Democrats, but welcomed tbe support of Monarchists and Socialists, as their only aim was the fight against Hitlerism. The party was opposed to racialism and class arrogance. It had no intention of contesting the elections for the Legislative Assembly, but would appeal to its followers to vote for the candidates of the German African Party, the organisation of the naturalised anti-Nazis of German origin or extraction. They were confident that tbe majority of the Germans In SouthWest Africa were strongly opposed to the return of the mandated territory to Germany as long as Herr (Hitler was in power.