A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
T SEE that a new branch of the German-English Friendship 1 Association, the Deutsch-Englische Gesellschaft, corre- sponding to the Anglo-German Fellowship in this country, has just been opened in Bremen. These organisations present something of a problem. Nine-tenths of the people of this country desire Anglo-German friendship if by that is meant friendship with the German people. But is it in fact Anglo-German, or Anglo-Nazi, friendship ? Are the two Anglo-German bodies comprehensive ? I have some German friends who are Nazis and some who hate the whole Nazi system and regime. Are the latter eligible as members of the Deutsch-Englische Gesellschaft ? Is Dr. Niemoller, for example ? And are Germans who on account of non- Aryan ancestry, or their political views, have been compelled to leave Germany welcomed as members of the Anglo-German Fellowship ? Would Dr. Bruning or Dr. Einstein be if they were here ? It is quite possible for democrats in Great Britain to maintain the most genuinely cordial relations with individual Germans who live under a dictatorship, but they would hardly be disposed to lend their support to a movement confined • on the German side to Nazis and obviously liable to be used to promote the interests of the Nazi regime. The close association of the Anglo-German Fellowship here with the German Embassy is, I am afraid, incompatible with the idea of really catholic Anglo-German friendship. It is a pity, for there is a great gain in such contacts across frontiers.
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