21 JANUARY 1938, Page 2

It is announced that Dr. Niemoller, the German Con- fessional

Church leader, who has been in prison since July 1st, 1937, is to be brought to trial some time next month on vague charges, such as the use of the pulpit for political purposes. Simultaneously it is reported that a meeting of Confessional pastors held last week at Dr. Niemoller's church at Dahlem was broken up by the secret police and over twenty pastors detained for several hours. On Monday Dr. Frick, the Minister of the Interior, declared in a public speech that in Germany the truest form of democracy prevailed. Imprisonment without trial is unhappily a normal feature of life in several European countries besides Germany today, but that does not change the fact that it represents a deliberate reversion to a stage of evolution from which other countries which term themselves democracies, and with much truer reason, emerged several centuries ago. We have no title and no desire to interfere in Germany's domestic concerns, but the main- tenance of the canons of civilised justice is a matter not merely of national but of continental importance, and the retro- gression of the past few years must be deplored wherever justice for its own sake is held precious. The Archbishop of Canterbury was well-advised in suggesting before Convocation on Wednesday that consideration in this country of Herr Hitler's peace offers was jeopardised by the persecution of the Protestant and Roman Catholic churches in Germany.