Evening star., 1932-08-28
German ''Nazi" Crisis
Gives Britain Concern
BY A. G. GARDINER.

LONDON. August 27.-The German
crisis overshadows all other european
TOPICS today. Even the meeting OF the
cabinet, hurriedly summoned for tcoay
Immediately on the return OF the BTU
ish delegation from Ottawa, to CONSIDER
a drastic change in British fiscal pol
lev consequential on the imperial con-
ference resolutions, is ecli7sed by the
sensational development o. the Ger
man situation.
THE Beuthen episode, like the Sera-
jevo assassinations, has appnea the
match to the powder magazine on Cen
tral Europe and public opinion mere
awaits the repercussions with the pro-
foundest anxiety.
Adolf Hitler's defiant challenge to the
government to dare touch har OF
the heads of the Beuthen murderers has
swept away the last possibility OF an
accommodation between Chancellor Won
Papen and the Nazs, and the question
exercising all minds is whether Won
Papen and Gen. Kurt Won Schlelcher
have the courage to take up the chal-
lenge and allow the sentences 10 De
executed. The suppression OF the NaA
newspaper, Der Angriff, is taken as an
indication that they will, for in strlK-
ing at Paul Goebbels, the editor. they
are attacking the most formidable ng-
ure in the Nazi movement next 10 HiI-
Ter himself.
This truculent dwarf can hold a
crowd of 10000 with his frenzled thun-
ders against the Jews, CathollcS ana
MarxiSts and he has canallzeo all the
passion aroused by the Beuthen SEN
tences against the Jews, VINO, Whatever
their sins, had nothing whatever to DO
with the Beuthen affair. But anti
semitism always rouSeS mass emotion
with the Nazs more violently than any
thing else and in his preaching cam
paign against the Jews, GoeboeS mas
seized the Beuthen affair as means
of restoring discipline and solidarity IN
the Hitler movement.
Assuming that Won Papen defies HIT
Ter. what follows? The assembly OF the
Reichstag is imminent and in the
Reichstag there is no government fol-
lowing except a small body OF Mon
archist Nationansts. Hitler controls the
largest faction in the Reichstag ana
the Center Catholic party, the Social
lists and the Communists are all noStlIe
to the government for contrary reasons.
The chief asset Of Won Papen is the
backing of President Won Htndenburg,
who still commands immense autnorHy
and whose constitutional position is uh-
chalIengeable in view of the fact that
in a straight fight he inflicted an over
whelming defeat on Hitler at the polls.
K x X
Supported by the President, the gov
ernment will survive If it can induce
A. nd Socialist T1QTtiPS IN drChO
their animosities and combine to save
the state from civil war by supporting
a government with which both parties
disagree but which offers the only bar
rier against an impending catastrophe.
It is possible that the wave OF fear
aroused by the frenZied policy OF the
Nazis will have the effect of mobillzlng
the Center and Socialist forces to the
defense of Won Papen and Won Schlel-
cher and their government as the only
alternative to anarchy.
The only other combination that
would command a majority In the
Reichstag would be Nazi-Communist
grouping, but this would not be COM
bination to carry on government but
combination to destroy government as
q preliminary to destroying each other.
II X
Is GApSClcU III IhA4Co AASAN
that the Centrists and Socialists who,
in their attachment to traditions OF law
and order have at least one sentiment
in common, will present a united front
against both NaZi and Communist ex-
tremities and so enable the forms OF
constitutional government to survive.
If this expectation is disappointed,
the Weimar constitution will be sus-
pended any pretense of parliamentary
government abandoned and Germany
will fall back on an undisguised die
tatorship with Won Hindenburg, the
elected President, as the only constitu-
tional link between the government and
the people. In either case the main
problem of tie government will be the
defense of the state against the men,
ace of armed political parties like the
Nazis and Communists, whose activi-
ties II unchecked, will bring Germany
to irreparable anarchy.
1Copyright. ls32.a