Conflict in Germany ..
It. is now, clear that if the present German Government secures its majority at the coming elections, as in all likelihood it will, its success will be due primarily to the ruthless use of force. Blood is being shed in increasing volume in the course of the election campaign, and the Catholic Centre, for which the Nazis at first showed some respect, is suffering as' heavily as the Communists or Socialists. The climax is the order to the-police to shoot when necessary, but only to shoot the opposition. Hitler's declaration that he will retain power at any cost is obviously to be made good, though the cost in the end may be greater than he calculated. With his own party well supplied with arms, and fully prepared to use them with provocation or without, it is hard to see what reply the opposition can make, but the possibility of a split in the German Reich is not to be ignored. The Southern States,' Bavaria, Saxony, Wurtemberg and Baden, arc profoundly uneasy at the latest developmenti, and in Bavaria the restoration of the Wittelsbach mon- archy is being talked of openly. That must still be regarded as a remote contingency, but if the Nazis are to be enthroned in Prussia and to pursue their present methods, the secession movement in the south will gain in strength. Where President Hindenburg stands in all this it is hard to divine. Even those with the greatest faith in the Field-Marshal must find it hard to believe that he still has power to stem the tide of events.
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