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In Berlin meanwhile officials close to Der Führer were suavely reminding foreign diplomats that last month Joseph Stalin enlarged the Red Army from 1,300,000 to 1,600,000 men by lowering the age at which Soviet citizens are subject to compulsory military training from 21 to 19, thus adding two age classes to the Soviet Army machine. The corps diplomatique in Berlin was also asked to remember that last year the French conscript term was doubled from one year to two and that in fact two years is now the rule in most countries adjoining the Fatherland. To put things thus quietly and sensibly to the German people is not emotional Herr Hitler's way. His high-pressure Ministry of Propaganda & Public Enlightenment was turned on full blast last week to announce such absurdities as that Russia's army had been increased to 9,000,000 men. In a Goebbels frenzy the Nazi Press screamed with page-wide headlines that "under the curse of the Marxist terror Spain is today being converted into a desert!" and that Stalin's hordes are thirsting to make Germany a barren waste. Neutral correspondents noted that while joy was the German reaction last year when the Treaty of Versailles was torn up and the Fatherland given a one-year conscript Army (TIME, June 3, 1935), the two-year decree of last week sobered German faces as the people wondered if this latest move meant that their Realmleader has decided to lead them to war.
Kiss in the morning, kick in the afternoon, and the very next morning a gleaming German airliner alighted in Paris with the so-called "Economic Dictator" of the Reich, famed Dr. Hjalmar Schacht, Minister of Economics and Reichsbank President, in his most honeyed and wheedling mood. Dr. Schacht can be one of the sharpest, most cutting and ruthless men in Europe, but he was all smiles as he stepped from what might just as well have been a Nazi bomber and said with irony: "Well, well, Messieurs! I have come from Berlin in only five hours. You see we are very near each other after all!"
What followed put a terrific strain on the Popular Front coalition which supports the Blum Cabinet. Scarcely could French Communists believe their ears when they heard that Premier Blum, not only a Jew but also a Socialist, had greeted with every mark of courteous amity the first German Cabinet minister to go to Paris since the Nazis came to power in Berlin. As for Dr. Schacht, he seemed to have permission from Realmleader Hitler to forget for the duration of his Paris visit everything Germans have been told to remember about Jews and Marxists. After lunching at the Bank of France with the Premier, Finance Minis ter Vincent Auriol and other French Cabinet members, Dr. Schacht purred: "Both in general and in technical discussions, I got the impression of having to deal with intelligent and capable men of good faith. I am eminently satisfied! How could one help being satisfied when one has just talked with a man like Blum? I am very happy with the results of my trip."