A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
PERHAPS after all there was justification for the mis- givings felt, though not always expressed, in various quarters regarding the Duke of Windsor's visit to Germany —not by reason of any indiscretion of the Duke's, but because of the necessity which a totalitarian State feels imposed on it of making political capital for itself at every turn. American papers reported the Duke's activities more fully than British, and this is the verdict of the special corre- spondent of one of the best of them, the New York Times : The Duke . . . has lent himself, perhaps uncon- sciously, to National Socialist propaganda . . . There can be no doubt that his tour has strengthened the regime's hold on the working classes. The German worker has been made thoroughly aware that the Duke came to Germany to see model workers' colonies and study the National Socialist system of dealing with labour problems. His reputation as the working man's friend has been duly advertised. Statements by workers inter- viewed during the tour by accompanying reporters reveal a prevalent idea that he was driven from - his throne because of sympathy for the workers, and that he has found in the Third Reich a system with which he sympathises.
There is, of course, not the smallest reason to believe that the Duke himself encouraged any such views.
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