Evening star., 1955-02-27

earliest stages. And when it
comes to recruiting, the job will
be far from easy.
The shadow "war ministry" in
Bonn has been quite openly soli-
citing applications for military
service for the last two years. In
that time, it has received a total
of 125.000 requests for military
duty and another $4,000 for ad-
ministrative jobs.
Many Are Unqualified.
Officials of the ministry admit
that many of these applications
will be turned down.
"The truth is that the people
applying now are often not the
kind of men we want to get. Al
most all of them are former SOL
diers who are having a hard time
getting along with civilians. The
better type of young man is too
often not interested at this
point"
This is putting it mildly. From
time to time, the recruiting Off
cials have held mass rallies of
young men to explain to them
why they should volunteer for
military service. These sessions
have almost inevitably wound up
in exchanges like the one that
took place recently in Cologne.
The idea of the officials was
to explain the new plans for re-
forming the training processes
in the Wehrmacht along demo-
cratic lines and get the reaction
of the future recruits. The
youngsters, however, saw the oc-
casion as a great chance to reg
lister their protest against mill
tary service of any kind. Their
interest was not in how they
should be soldiers but rather, If.
Resistance Is Strong.
A typical exchange:
Offical-We know you don't
want to be soldiers. But remem-
Der that the decision to rearm
will be made by the politicians
whom you have elected.
The replies came from every
corner of the crowded hall:
How about those who are
under 20 years old? We're old
enough to be soldiers, but not
to vote. Why don't you ask us
what we think? .. If elections
were held today, the government
would be very different. :.
why be a soldier? My
father was killed in the last war.
Adenauer is always telling us
proudly that he was never mo-
bllized. We don't want to be
mobllized either.
1--WE don't want to be educated
by former Nazi generals. Are we
going to fall into the hands of
those who led us to ruin?"
The officials, on the defensive,
pointed out that there were
1,400 German generals in l945
and that the chances of finding
some SO politically irreproach-
able top officers was good. The
audience, however, would have
none of it.
"Just to Make Jobs. -"
"Why do we need an army
anyway" someone shouted.
Without one we've done bet
ter Job of resisting communism
than France and Italy. If you ask
me its just a way to find work
for unemployed officers. -"
Oficial-Don't you think that
there is any danger in your at
titudeS?
Not the slightest. Anyway,
the West has promised to defend
us. :.
If we're attacked, German
troops will have to retreat to
Normandy. How can you talk
about defending our homes and
our liberty. We, won't be
cannonfodder."
An official-In spite of what
I've heard I don't believe our
young men are Communists. =.
The reply from all over the
hall was deafening:
I'VE don't want to be soldiers,
but we're not Communists!
Officials at the war ministry
admit that this kind of verbal
ShambieS, repeated on a number
of different occasions in major
German cities, has not helped
smooth the way for a recruiting
drive. On the other hand, they do