A Household Spy-System . Shiite October 1st Germany has . . been
expexi encing yet,. another extension of the powers of the National Socialist Party. In the past, the lower Nazi officials have had. the duty of supervising and reporting on the }ices of party members living in the houses and flats under their care ; now this duty is extended to cover everyone, whether party members or not. Each cell-leader has responsibility for some forty to sixty families. His first task is to prepare a card-index of ill members of those families, giving name, age, occupation, and services, if any, to the party organisations. The purpose of this system, as officially explained, is to assist the party in its . propaganda, political and educational. It is difficult to believe that the propaganda is worth this widespread system of investigation and intrusion into private life which it seems to involve ; it is admitted in some papers that the system is not wholly popular. It is also suggested that the enquiries are of military value, as the Reiehswehr is interested in methods of controlling the. civil population. There have been several protests against this intrusion of the party into every home, and the right to ask the questions necessary to prepare the card-index has been challenged,, but unsuccessfully. Germany's talent for research is directed now not to science and learning but to the private livei of her citizens—sO far as they still have priVate lives.
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