The Ypsilanti daily press. (Ypsilanti, Mich.) 1928-1962, 1941-06-25

| secret agents from getting INTO
/ America or from getting out
again?
Italy, having had its American
assets frozen. responded by freez-
ing our Italian assets.
Adolf however, announced that
he wasn't going to initiate US
merely; that he was going to think
up something original. If the state
departments correct in guessing
that his Gestapo's move against
the Christian Scientists was the
initial step in his campaign, it's
agreed that he has shown a good
bit Of originality OF course 1t also
is recognized that maybe his ban
on all German Christian Science
churches and reading rooms wasn't
inspired solely by our asset-freez-
ing and consulate-closing DEGREES;
that perhaps he has an anti-Chris-
: tan Science complex. Just as he's
Jew batter. Still, there's a
pretty strong bunch that what
he seems to have started to do fol-
lows as a sequel to what we did.
To be sure, the German Christian
Scientists are largely purely Ger
man, but for that matter, the Ger
man Jews likewise are almost eX-
clusively Germans. The fact that
they're German. though, doesn'
protect 'em any.
Introduced by Americans
Furthermore the German Jews
have been German since the men,
DRY OF man, where Christian Sci
ence was introduced into the Reich
by Americans, and not more than q
generation back, either. Besides,
the German churches have re-
manned and still are Cor were, up
to the date Of their SUPPRESSION
closely affiliated with the Mother
Church in Boston. Hence it's sur
missed that the Fuehrer thinks that
he's taking a jab, by prosecuting
his German Christian Scientists,
at an essentially American faith,
even as an anti-Catholic regime
feels that it's making thrust at
the Vatican by persecution Of ITS
native Catholics.
T There isn't much that the state
department can do toward the Ger
man Christian Scientists protec-
ton. any more than it's been able
TO do anything toward protecting
the German Jews, with the Nazis
dispossessing and maltreating 'em.
4 The truth Is that the depart
ment's largely dependent for its
information relative to the situa-
ton upon the Boston board Of
Christian Science directors, which
has had several reports directly
from its affiliated churches In Nazi.
land. The Gestapo's crusade was
launched only very recently, how.
ever, and details in connection with
1t are scanty. II seems certain,
anyway, that the German churches
are completely extinguished. They
had to dissolve" as one account
expresses it-their literature was
seized, they can't hold services and
they can't DO missionary work.
: According to the Boston directors,
the cult is numerically fairly
strong through the Reich. It's
churches are said TO have totaled
more than 100-nine in Berlin
alone.
The board also Is authority for
the statement that the German
organization has been scrupulous
IN observing all Nazi regulations,
both as to services and outside
activities. Board members can't
understand why, as a church, their
German brethren should have been
attacked. They incline to concur
with the state department that
their faiths under the Fuehrer
displeasure as Of American origin
rather than as religion.
Some Good, Perhaps
All the same, state departmental
officialdom fancies IT sees some
possible ultimate good from tht
development. Its notion il thai
Adolfs course is calculated TO gel
him greatly disliked by a consid
cradle and extremely Influential
class Of German citizens-for tn
Christian Scientists are generally
substantial folk, whether you agree
with EN- or not, as to their doc
trine.
And the departments enthusi
astically in favor Of having tn
Fuehrer disliked by as many peo
pie as possible, right in Germany
Diplomacy's a funny thing, b,
the way. When Undersecretary o
State Sumner Welles handed 4
German Acting Ambassador Han
Thomson our note, informing hin