''Occult Forces"

Ever since they fell into goose-step behind Adolf Hitler millions of Germans have been waiting for what Der Fuehrer calls "the occult forces of World Jewry" to be exposed in "their citadel, New York." Last week came what Nazis took to be the long-awaited break. For what seemed to them exceedingly occult reasons, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia abruptly took action which had the effect of barring Germans from being granted New York City licenses as masseurs, locksmiths, itinerant musicians, operators of newsstands, keepers of fruit or soda water booths, bootblacks on outdoor stands, operators of employment agencies, ping- pong galleries, pool and billiard parlors, shooting galleries or bathing establishments, public porters, dirt-cart drivers, wardrobe concessionaires, charity entertainment managers, hand-organ grinders and operators of junk shops, junk carts or junk boats.

This sweeping debarment of Germans was purely hypothetical last week but nonetheless real. It sprang from a ruling by the hot-tempered little Mayor that, because the Nazi State, in his opinion, discriminates against certain U. S. citizens, mostly Jews, in Germany, therefore New York's municipal government will not issue licenses to Germans which it would otherwise be compelled to issue under the

U. S. German trade treaty of 1925. Specifically, in the case of an obscure German who has been trying for months to wangle a renewal of his masseur's license out of Commissioner of Licenses Paul Moss. pugnacious Fiorello LaGuardia snarled: "Wherever anyone is depending on this Treaty to get a license he won't get it! ... The issue is: should we extend privileges to German citizens here when similar privileges are denied to American citizens in Germany? . . . This is a great big thing. This is a broad interpretation of treaty rights . . . worth fighting for!"

To keep the issue broad. Mayor LaGuardia angrily refused to reveal the aspiring German masseur's name. This antagonized reporters to the point of hinting there was no such masseur, caused excited Mr. Moss to vow, "On my word of honor as a gentleman and as a Commissioner, there is such a man!"

Hints that the masseur's name began with K. brought a rash of "Mr. K." headlines. A cable from Berlin, based on reports by Germany's Consul in Manhattan, revealed him as Herr Paul Kress who has taken out his first and applied for his second U. S. naturalization papers.

To news readers in Germany it was indeed suspicious that Mayor LaGuardia remained adamant last week, after his own legal adviser twice told him that his interpretation of the treaty was wrong, and after the U. S. State Department crossed its fingers with an intimation that no German discrimination against U. S. citizens is "of record'' in its files.

This caused the Mayor to brandish copies of official communications handed by U. S. Ambassador Dodd to the Hitler Government. In these there was an undeniable though vague insinuation that if Germany has been discriminating against U. S. holders of the Fatherland's bonds or so discriminates in future the Roosevelt Administration will be vexed.

Since this was the best proof of German discrimination Mayor LaGuardia presented last week, Berlin's Angriff, personal newsorgan of Minister of Propaganda & Public Enlightenment Dr. Paul Josef Goebbels. thundered against "NEW YORK'S JEWISH MAYOR.-. . . It is to be expected that American authorities will look thoroughly into the activities of LaGuardia and his wire pullers in the world metropolis of Jewry! . . . We expect with certainty that the United States and their President will draw a distinctive line between themselves and this peace-disturber LaGuardia."

Meanwhile in Manhattan what again seemed to Germans "occult forces" caused a number of Communists to sneak aboard the S. S. Bremen as that German liner was about to sail with such distinguished passengers as President Roosevelt's toddling grandson William Donner Roosevelt. Six daring Reds proceeded to tear down and throw into the Hudson River the Bremen's

Nazi flag with its great swastika. The Reds, as Germans fully expected they would be, were at once attacked by New York policemen. During this Wild West conflict, Captain Leopold Ziegenbein stood aloof and calm on the Bremen's bridge in a uniform of cool white duck. Said he as New York ambulances clanged away with dozens of injured and his ship prepared to sail for Germany: "We don't know what the future has in store for us. We don't know what is going to happen next."

Despite strong hints to U. S. news services by German spokesmen that their Gov ernment expects an official apology from Washington for the Bremen flag incident and Federal action to force a license for "Mr. K." from Mayor LaGuardia, the only result was that the Mayor said he "would abide by the State Department's decision" if it should rule on "Mr. K." To Germans it was occult that New York Representative Samuel Dickstein should have risen in Congress latt week to call Realmleader Hitler a madman, a mur derer and the protagonist of an insane theory of government. They saw the in visible hand of Jewry in a proposal by a New York City alderman to forbid public showing of the swastika. To Germans, however, it was thrilling to read of the prompt, virile reaction of hyphenated German-Americans in New York to Mayor LaGuardia. "We are prepared to meet violence with violence!" roared the Fuhrer of the Friends of New Germany in South Brooklyn. Karl Nicolay. With apple-cheeked youths uniformed somewhat like Realmleader Hitler's Special Guard policing the Brooklyn aisles, Acting National Fuhrer Josef Schuster of America's Friends of New Germany de nounced Mayor LaGuardia in unprintable terms, shouted in defense of Realmleader Hitler, "The only people who are tyrannized over in Germany ought to have been shot a long time ago!"

*Said Mr. LaGuardia shortly after being sworn in as Mayor in 1934, "My mother undoubtedly had Jewish blood in her veins, but I never thought I had enough in mine to justify boasting about it."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.