12 JULY 1935, Page 2

- The German Government is renewing its war on the

Churches. At the moment the attack is directed primarily against the Roman Catholics, but there is no Sign of the conflict between the Government and the Protestant Confessional Synod being resolved. The new paganism, which is still gathering strength, is com- prehensively opposed to Christianity under any guise. With the Catholics the immediate quarrel is over steriliza- tion, which the Government imposes in certain cases and the Vatican roundly condemns, and the training of youth generally—the question incidentally which pre- cipitated the main conflict between Fascism and Catholicism in Italy. To the totalitarian State the rival claims of the State and the Church to the plastic mind of youth are irreconcilable. In Italy a modus vicendi has been reached. The rigid temper of Prussianism will make agreement far less easy in Germany. Meanwhile the persecution of Jews continues, and there are good reasons for believing that terrorism behind the walls of prisons and concentration camps persists, though few evidences of it get into print. The State is of course powerful enough to crush any attempt at open opposition, but the methods of menace and suppression to which the Government is still compelled to resort demonstrate the absence of all fusion of spirit.