The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1932-01-22
WAR SHADOWS
AGAIN HANGING
OVER EUROPE
French officials Charge
Germany Quietly Is Get
ting Ready.
HITLER VIEWED MENACE
ReiChwehr Only Is Training
School for Officers,
Asserts Senator.
BY WILLIAM PHILIP SIMMS
Soripps-HovIrd Foreign Editor

WASHINGTON, Jan. 22-The
reparations and war debts dead
lock now imminent between Ger
many and the allies on the one
hand, and the allies and the United
States on the other, is trimming
with sinister possibilities.
Reports from Germany indicate
that she is playing for big stakes
for cancellation of reparations, pure
and simple-and is prepared to take
the consequences of failure.
In desperate effort to prevent be-
ing overthrow by Herr Hitler and
his war-like Fascists, Chancellor
Bruening has taken one of Hitlers
principal planks and is using it to
bolster up his tottering regime.
Germany can pay no more rep
arations, he has boldly stated, and
this the French take to mean the
beginning of an open attack on the
treaty of Versailles itself, and an
effort to restore the eastern from
tiers to their pre-war status.
Charge Willful Default
On top of this, high French Of
ficials charge that Germany is
wilfully in default and that she has
been spending vast sums of money
in secret preparation for a war OF
revenge against France.
Instead of paying reparations, 1t
is alleged, Germany has been build
ing vast airports, chemical works,
factories capable of turning out
airplanes, tanks, high explosives,
deadly gases, and so on, and train
ing hordes of officers to take COM
mand of troops trained under the
guise of marching clubs, athletic as
sociations and the like.
Senator Burgeous just has re-
ported to the foreign affairs COM
mtitee at Paris that the reichwehr
the army of 100000 allowed Ger
many under the treaty of Versailles
lis used to train officers as was
done in Prussia following similar re-
strictions placed upon Teutonic
troops by Napoleon. BY intensive
methods, officers quickly are turned
out in vast numbers to make way
for more.
On Eve of Elections
Such is the feeling in France on
the eve of her national elections.
These are expected to return ma
tionalistic legislature. Premier Laval
has the reputation of concealing a
fist of steel inside velvet glove,
and Andre Tardieu, minister of
war, is a disciple of former Presi-
dent Poincare, who invaded the
Ruhr, and of the late Marshal Foch
who never ceased to insist that the
Rhine is Frances natural frontier
Across this historic waterway. in
Germany, nationalism is rampant
and still growing-if there are any
more Germans left to convert to the
cause.
To the last man, woman and
child, Germans have come to ac-
cept the agreeable Hitler doctrine
that the treaty of Versailles means
slavery; that PREPARATIONS are in
tolerable; that all their woes, eco
nomic and political, are due to the
war settlements, and that these
must be abolished.
France Is Big Hate
In this spirit, Germans today are
facing the allies in general and
France in particular. France is their
big hate. Italy and Britain both
favor treaty revision, but France
remains adamant.
Like France, Germany shortly
will hold her national elections. And
Hitlerism, if not Adolf Hitler him
self almost certainly will sweep the
nation. Two increasingly belligerent
powers, therefore, now face each
other threateningly astraddle the
Rhineland.
In the face of all this, the war
debts position of the administra-
ton at Washington is like that of
a straw in a whirlwind. It's thesis
continues to be that the $22, 000,-
100000 war debts, principal and in
terest, has nothing to do with Ger
many's $2S,O00,00O,0O reparations
payments. But if and when the
European cyclone begins to blow,
the straw of Washington's desires,
it is predicted, will be waited
whittier the wind from overseas
hsteth.