Professing to be overjoyed at the results of yesterday’s referendum, when approximately 5,000,000 Germans dared Nazi wrath either by saying “nein” to Hitler’s request for approval or by defacing their ballots, as opposed to slightly more than 38,000,000 voters who docilely indicated “ja,” Nazi officialdom was today girding its loins for the next crucial plebiscite in its career.
The next plebiscite, for which the Nazi orators are tuning up tongue, microphone and bludgeon, is still five months off. But despite the distance of the event, it is believed that the size of the “nein” vote, more than double that recorded in the last plebiscite, held in November on the League of Nations question, has given the Nazi overlords the closest thing they have had to a real scare since the June 30 “purge.” So, spurred by the unexpectedly large negative vote and sensing that despite all their efforts at suppression the opposition is becoming more vocal, the Nazi party is already pointing to the Saar, where the next plebiscite will be held in June.
LESS SUBJECT TO FORCE
It is being widely predicted in informed circles here that the effect of the 5,000,000 “neiners” on residents of the Saar will be much more pronounced than will be the effect of the 38,000,000 who voted “ja.” With this in mind, plus the knowledge that in the Saar there was a tremendous revulsion of feeling over the “purge” and that the population there will be less susceptible to force than in Germany proper, the Nazi overlords have already begun to go into huddles on the January election.
In some quarters it is being said that the government, mindful of both the big negative vote and the vital necessity for changing the alarming trend of anti-Nazi opinion in the Saar, is preparing to take action which will have for its purpose mollification of the opposition.
SPEAKS TO SAAR NAZIS
A fact that lent emphasis to these predictions was the speech made by Hitler immediately after the Nazi officials had released the preliminary figures on the plebiscite. The speech was made to a delegation of 2,000 members of the Nazi party from the Saar Valley.
“We must and shall succeed,” he said, referring to the negative vote, “in winning over the last ten per cent of the nation for national socialism.”
Then, directing his attention to the Saar problem, he sounded what will probably become the keynote of the Nazi drive for recovery of Saarland.
“Everything German in the world belongs to Germany,” he declared, “and we must, as well as possible under the existing treaties, seek to win everything German back. No matter what happens we will never desert you. Yesterday you saw how Germans stick together in difficult times. There will soon be a time when you will not need to come to me. Then I can come to you and it will be the most beautiful journey of my life.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
