War on Neo-Nazis
The action of the Federal German Cabinet in banning the -" neo-Nazi ". organisation Freikorps Deutschland and issuing warrants for the arrest of four of its leaders is to be welcomed - on two grounds.-In the first place it goes a considerable way to justify the arrests of other ultra-nationalists by the British Occupation authorities three weeks ago; it can no longer be contended that the danger which they decided to tackle was imaginary. In the second it indicates a welcome vigour on the part of the Bonn Cabinet, and a recognition of the wisdom of the injunction, obsta principiii. Failure in that respect by the pre-Hitler German Governments was a prime cause of Germany's downfall. The Freikorps Deutschland is itself relatively small, but Germans have a talent for organising, and for organising in such a way as to facilitate rapid and often dangerous expansion. General von Seeckt began that after the First War with the 100,000 men allowed him by the Treaty of Versailles, and the Nazis gave much more spectacular demonstration of it later. Dr. Adenauer and his colleagues can in such a matter as this count on the unqualified support of the Social Democratic Opposition, a fact which strengthens their hands considerably. The disclosure of the existence of these subversive elements in Germany is another argument for- the early ratification of the European Defence Treaties, .for -when once Germany is fully integrated as an equal in the Western European-Defence system she will hold a new position in Europe, and the opportunities for Nazi-nationalists to_make trouble will be by so much diminished. It seems likely that the documents seized by, the British and by the German Government may uncover more rats' nests yet.
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