May 21. 1939

Germany Nation of MysteryPa~e Tlaree

Part of the 50,000G.rman troop. in parade on Hitl.r'. birthday. For.ign official. 'riIit the .wimmill9 pool in B.rlin'. gr.at .porta hall.

Traveler Is Baffled by HisImpressions on Visit

• The accompanying letter is the second of two which weresent to the editor of The Tribune. Because it· is so informa-tive of conditions in Germany, it is being published. The firstletter, dealing with the writer's observations in Italy, waspresented in this section last Sunday. Since it is necessaryto protect sources from which this information was gathered,

the name of the writer cannot be divulged.

Paris, France.

GERMANY baffles me. Ihave definite impressionsof Italy, but of Germany

I cannot be sure that my impres-sions are real or are those con-jured up hy fear.Germany is mysterious. It is

not natural. It is a militarycamp at the bottom, but every-where it appears to be a landof homes. workshops, and cul-ture. It is most difficult to bur-row beneath the crust, to knowthe real thoughts and feelingsof the German people.I was told that there was a

lack of butter, meats, and cor-fee in Germany, yet I neverlacked anything of this nature.Butter always was placed onthe table. as in any other coun-try, but I know that a goodfriend of mine, a German, al-ways purchases butter to takehome to Germany when' he isin Paris. This friend, who is abanker, told me that fats werethe principal item lacking inGermany, and also that this de-ficiency was one of the mainreasons for the defeat of theGermans in the World war.Trying to learn more about

the food situation, I went to anordinary restaurant which wasnot frequented by foreignersand which catered mostly tomiddle-class Germans. There Ifound t hat butter was notserved. A waiter told me thatduring the winter and untilabout May 15 it was difficult toobtain any butter at the stores,and then only a limited quantityon a ration basis.While fat!" are necessary as

foodstuffs, they also are quiteessential in the making of glyc-erin, which is used in the manu-facture of explosives. We reada great deal about the strengthof Germany, but so little aboutits weakness. A basic factor ofthis weakness is the scarcity offats.

• • •The German people apparent-

ly are extremely ignorant ofwhat is going on. A woman Imet dropped a few remarkswhich disclose the inner unhap-piness and fear with which thepeople are burdened-Unhappi-ness and fear which they mustkeep to themselves and aboutwhich they dare not talk."We do not know what is

going on," she said. " Longfel-low once wrote, •I woke up onemorning and f 0 u n d myselffamous.' We woke up one morn-ing and found we had takenCzecho-Slovakia."At another time this woman

told me that the exchange dif-ficulties made travel an ordeal.•.Life here in Germany," she

said, •.is just like being on aship-you can't jump ott."I was in Germany on the day

that the Italians launched theirattack against Albania. It wasGood Friday, one of the impor-tant holidays of the Germans.At the palaces of Potsdam, towhich I went that day as a sight-seer, were throngs of Germans.Neither there nor In Berlin werethere any indications among thepeople that anything unusualwas transpiring. None of theGermans with whom I talkedknew about Italy's move againstAlbania, and neither did I. Itried to purchase American andLondon newspapers, but therewas no news stand that had for

sale a newspaper printed in Eng-lish. I left a Berlin that appar-ently was normal and arrived ina Paris that had an atmosphereof tenseness and anxiety.In Paris I learned for the first

time what had occurred.Germans employed as guides

apparently are under instruc-tions to keep military prepara-tions from the eyes of tourists. showed Hitler at the launchingI visited the tower which over- of a battleship and reviewinglooks the great stadium in Ber-. the fieet. The national anthemlin that seats 120,000 spectators. was played twice during thisThe athletic importance of thts .. 'presentation, obviously to arousevast structure was pointed out. 'patriotic enthusiasm. The audi-to me, and it proved most Inter- ence clapped their hands onlyesting. A~ I was about to leave once, and the applause on thean old soldier who resembled whole was far from being enthu-the kaiser, and who had greeted siastle. Could this indifferenceme with a smart salute and a have been due to a lack of enthu-ringing" Heil Hitler! ", directed siasm for preparedness for war?me with a wink of his eye to a Or was it due to the phlegmaticlarge group of distant buildings' nature of the Germans?under construction. .The following night I attend-My guide explained that these ed an opera performance where

buildings were a part of a new Germans of the same class asuniversity being constructed for those who had been present atthe study of military tactics. He the showing of the news reelsaid 10,000 students were to be were most vociferous in theiraccommodated by the univer- applause, calling the singerssi:.)'. As the guide started to back time and time again.walk away the old soldier took I am cohvinced as a result ofme to another window and point- this experience in the vaudevilleed to another group of buildings. house, where an audience sat inThese constituted the new darkness and revealed its innerschools for aviation. In still an- feelings, that the German peopleother direction, and lying just do not want war, that they areat the outskirts of Berlin, were not enthusiastic about these war-large armament w 0 l' k s and like preparations, and that therechemical plants. I had the det- is smoldering within them re-inite impression there of vast sentment and fear for their lossmilitary organization and prep- of freedom. This, I believe, willaratlon for war. assert itself outwardly someLater I visited the huge new day. I asked my acquaintance,

airport under construction in the business man, whether orBerlin. I beheld a big hotelwithin its confines, a postofficeadministration building, exten-sive hangars, and a grand standseating 20,000 persons. Theguide would not say how manyplanes the airport could accom-modate, but he kept repeatingthat it was big enough for thirtyor forty planes to take off simul-taneously.It is impossible in Germany to

get anv one to talk about Hitlerin a frank and open manner.All the people know is how topraise the man, and that prob-ably is the only safe thing to doin Germany. I asked questions:••Are you really happy with

this discipline, which denies In-dividual liberty?"" Is Hitler really and truly

popular and supported by a maojority of the people? ""Would the German people

support Hitler as long as theydid the kaiser in a protractedwar?""Will the kaiser ever come

back? "Questions of this sort are not

answered anywhere in Germany.My guide and even a businessman who was with me-a manwho travels extensively in ror-eign countries - 0 n 1y smiledbroadly or looked away. I wastold by a German that one ofthe questions of a school exam-Inatlon was:••Where does Hitler live?"The correct answer to this is

that the Fuehrer" does not livein a palace, but in the hearts ofall Germans."This is the klnd of talk one is

compelled to listen to.Curiosity persuaded me to go

to a vaudeville show wheremiddle-class folk gather for en-tertainment and where there areno foreigners. The final act wasfollowed by a news reel which

."Hitl.r doe. not live in a palac.. but in the h.arta of all Germani," • . . Th. Fuehr.r r.ceive. birthday gr•• t-ing. fromGerman pea.an'" (Acme photo •. )

Chl1dren exercl.lng on apparatus. in the Reich .port. fi.ld, B.rlin.

not I was correct in my analysisand whether the lack of ap-plause was due to the disapprov-al of the majority of the peopleof war or of Hitler. He an-swered with a smile.In looking at Germany on the

inside, without for the momentconsidering its foreign policy, avisitor to that country naturallyis impressed with what he seesand hears. He is told that Hit-ler is doing a necessary job forhis people He Is informed thatthe National Socialists have reoorganized a country that wascollapsing, that they have re-united Germany and developedIt spiritually. physically, andeconomically.Business as a whole, I was

told, is making money (In Ger-man marks, of course), peoplehave steady employment, andin fact there actually is a short-age of labor. I was further In-formed that there had been agreat change since 1932, whenthere was a bitter struggle withcommunists, with much violencethroughout the country. The

Germans give Hitler the creditfor saving them.They told me that the govern-

ment did not interfere with theirbusiness and that all that wasexpected of them was the pay·ment of taxes. There is a 2 percent sales tax on every businesstransaction. A manufacturingcompany whose plant I visitedpays a 40 per cent tax upon itsprofits. Men of the companyspoke favorably of the law of1936 which fixed the prices forgoods, wages, and rents at thelevel of that year.No business house or industry

may increase above the fixedlevel without government con-sent the price of its goods orproducts. It may sell at figuresbelow this level, but naturallyit does not. This price fixing isintended tc stop speculation inindustrial activlty and to encour-age steady and continuous oper-ations.Corporations are free to raise

export prices above domesticprices.A guide whom I had employed,

and who told me that he was nota Nazi, became quite emotionalwhen he talked about the quali-ties of Hitler-in his opinion areal democrat. He took pridein Hitler because, as he said, theFuehrer did not smoke nordrink and did not love money.••How can such a great man

be so cruel to the Jews?" Iasked. In reply I was told thatthere always had been in theGerman population an elementthat hated the Jews. Develop-ments since the war, particular-ly the economic collapse of 1932,Increased this antipathy, I wasinformed, especially among thegroups who were unemployedand lacking in food. While thisfeeling is general among Ger-mans, they do not defend themethods used by the Nazis toexterminate the Jews.

• • •In a conversation with a friend

I reminded him of a statementhe had made some time beforethat there would be no militarywarfare involving Germany, butrather an economic warfareover a long period of time. Inthe meantime had occurred theconquest of Czecho . Slovakia.My friend said that the moveinto Czecho-Slovakia had hard-ened public opinion in Franceand Great Britain to the pointthat the governments of thesenations rather than the peoplethemselves w ere preventingwar. Surprised as my friendhad been at the turn of attairs,he still was confident that therewould be no war. After he hadstudied the facts Involved in theCzecho-Slovakian move he wassatisfied, he said, that his gov-ernment had pursued the correctcourse.He said that the British gov-

ernment privately had admittedthe impossibility of the condi-tions existing in Czecho-Slo-vakia. The result of the Munichagreement had so dislocated thetrade, finance, and political con-

ditlons of Czecho-Slovakta thatits president, according to myinformant, agreed with the Ger-man government that the onlysound solution to the problemwas for the smaller country toadopt German currency, Ger-man political policies, and enterinto the German tarif orbit.The political and economic stepsthat were taken were those thathad been agreed upon, my friendsaid.I asked him, if this were true,

why the agreement had not beencommunicated to France andGreat Britain. L'asked him whythe German army had been sentinto Czecho-Slovakia on a marchof conquest. He told me thatthe military occupation of thecountry was carried out to pre-vent bloodshed. As he explainedit, Czecho-Slovakia was sharplydivided within itself and hadwithin its borders communistsand refugees from many othercountries. The German army'sjob was to enforce decisionsagreed upon in the best interestsof Czecho-Slovakia, it was ex-plained, with the principal objectthat of preventing civil war andbloodshed. I was further in-formed that the German armyhad been virtually withdrawnfrom Czecho-Slovakia. On atrip into Bohemia I saw a longcolumn of motorized troops reoturning.My friend placed great em-

phasis on what he described asa fundamental fact - that thetreaty of Versailles had pros-trated Europe economically, andtlJat for twenty years Europehad suffered from the injusticesand wrongs imposed upon it bythe terms of the. treaty. Eng-1and has admitted privatelythese wrongs and injustices, ac-cording to my friend, who toldme that there were documentsin Berlin to prove that these ad-missions hae been made.Owing to the parliamentary

situations in G r eat Britainand France, it was explainedto me that problems affect-ing these nations and Gel',many co u 1d not be solvedpeacefully through negotiations,although pvery effort had beenmade months ago to do so. Myfriend said that these problemswould have to be settled byforce. He contended that Ber-lin had papers to show thatGreat Britain early in 1938 hadconceded the undesirability ofmaintaining Czecho-Slovakia asa nation. This understanding,he said, was reached last yearin May, but Great Britain askedfor time to find a solution. Itwanted more time because of itsparliamentary situation. It wasunderstood that the solution wasto have been found by the firstof October. There were negotia-t i Q n s and conversations formonths, but no action was taken.Hitler became impatient, it wasexplained to me, and as a ges-ture to placate him Runcimanwas dispatched to make a report.When Hitler finally saw that nosolution -could be found by thefirst of October he acted.

The conclusIon in Germany is,therefore. that force becomesnecessary to remove the injus-tices and inequalities of thetreaty of Versailles and to re-store European trade and com-merce. Public opinion in thedemocracies apparently will notdeal in a realistic manner withthe s e fundamental economicproblems confronting Europe.Furthermore, to restore thistrade it is necessary for thosenations which have a surplus toassist the nations that are con-fronted with deficiencies, but nostrong nation will give up anyrights or territories except as itis forced to do so.In this connection my friend

told a story on Chamberlain andRibbentrop. It seems the twowere getting along amicably inthe i l' negotiations. Chamber-lain, so the story goes, had con-ceded the Polish corridor andeven was willing to surrenderBelgium, Holland, and Switzer-land to Germany. Finally, how-ever, when Ribbentrop askedChamberlain for his umbrella,the prime minister objected, re-plying, according to the story:••No, that's mine."

•• •In the opinion of my friend

who told this story Great Brit-ain's attitude toward the Polishproblem is a stupid one. Hesaid that Danzig was entirelyGerman and that it could not bemaintained as a free city as setup by one of the stupidities ofthe Versailles treaty. He saidthat even the Poles admitted theinjustice in taking the city fromthe Germans. The issue betweenGermany and Poland, he in-formed me, could have been set-tled by Germany ottering some-thing else, but now, in hisopinion, the attitude of the Brit-ish makes a compromise dif-ficult.The Polish corridor today pre-

sents one of the most dangeroussituations in Europe, I was told,because the Germans never willrecognize it as a permanent tel"ritorial fixture.If war does start in Europe,

Poland will be the principalcountry to sutter. The Polishminister of foreign affairs, Col.Jozef Beck. is believed to knowthis only too well and will seeka compromise. My German in-

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formant believes France andGreat Britain do not possess airfieets or armies sufficient to sendto Poland. He doubts very muchwhether the British fieet wouldbe able to control the Baltic. Onthe other hand, in his opinionGermany w 0 u 1d not attackFrance, but rather would con-duct a defensive war on its bor-der, while dispatching an armyto fight on Polish soil.I asked my informant why

Germany was not satisfied withits present condition, inasmuchas, in my opinion, It was poten-tially stronger than it was be-fore the World war. I askedhim if it was not in the interestof his country to consolidate itsgains and to give a sufficientguarantee that it would negoti-ate the remaining questionspeacefully.He replied that English opin-

ion was not now ready to settle.He made a distinction betweenthe British government and theBritish people. And he statedthat there were two importantquestions upon which Germanyhad to be satisfied-the coloniesand Danzig.Incidentally, I was told by

some one else that Germany hasin mind that if Poland returnsDanzig, Latvia may be taken bythe Poles. I was told also thatif Great Britain does not makea settlement in respect to thequestion of colonies the Ukrainewill have to be taken in orderto comply with present Germanplans.My informant said that it was

ridiculous for other countries tothink of Germany as consideringthe invasion of Holland, Switz-erland, or Belgium. Germany'saim, on the other hand, as hemade clear, is to bring aboutagain a selt-sufficient empire.The present Germany is onlyabout 50 per cent self-sufficient.Germany, in my friend's belief,has no conftlct with France, be-cause that country is self-sur-ficient with its colonies. Theconfiict, he holds, is with GreatBritain, which Is not satisfiedwith world hegemony, but wantsalso European domination.The issue, as It was explained

to me, is a very serious one, sinceGermany Is determined to bringabout an economic unit In cen-tral Europe so that it may havetrade and commerce and be self·sustaining and self-sufficient.

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