HELPED PAY UPKEEP OF THE NAZI PARTY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 303, 23 December 1939, Page 10

HELPED PAY UPKEEP OF THE NAZI PARTY.

: GREAT IRON MAGNATE

But Left Country After

Russian Pact.

SENSATIONAL DISCLOSURES,

United Press Association. —Copyright.

(RecclrtMl 1,30 p.m.) ZURICH, December 22. Fritz Thyssen, the famous coal and iron magnate, said in an interview that he had spent 62,000,000 reichmarks in 12 years for the support and upkeep of the Nazi party. It is revealed that, before Foreign Minister von Riblientrop went to Moscow, the Government called a conference of Industrial heads, nt which Thyssen strongly protested against the concluding of a. Russian Pact. Industrialists were not informed of tho Government's intentions, and Thyssen's family, totalling 30 persons, decided to flee immediately. Raw Materials Short. I Thyssen added that the extreme short- " age of German raw materials was more seriously affecting the steel industry than ih admitted. Production figures were largely bluff, and the Army command was not aware that alloys, instead of steel, were being used in the production' of armaments. Substitutes were frequently used where steel was essential.

Eldest son of the late August ThysKen, who founded, the great Rhciiish-VVestphalian firm, Fritz Thys«en i* 66 years of age. After concluding a course of engineering study in his youth, he joined his father, nnd, as < the fatter grew old, Fritz gradually took over direction of his concern, a task to which he devoted all his energies. | Although he shunned publicity-, he was a much-discussed personality. The Left accused him of having tried to betray the Ruhr region to France. He was arrested, but there was no foundation for the charge, and he was soon | released. Thyssen played a leading in the negotiations surrounding the ; occupation of the Ruhr by France in > 1023, showing himself a strong oppo- \ ent to the then domineering French. He 1 resigned his post oi. the Franco-German ' Reconciliation Committee after a French officer, who had shot a German, was acquitted, an affair that aroused great resentment in Germany. In a letter to the chairman of the committee, Thyssen said: "In France they seem to thirtk they can do what they • like to a Germany which they have disarmed with the aid of 24 other ;':natlons, while they remain armed to the ;; teeth. In the interests of the peace of ' Europe, I hope the French will be I speedily disabused of the idea." I ) August Thyssen died in 1020, after > founding the great eeal and iron trust, ' {the "Vereinigte Stahlwerke," to #hlch ; .(Frits succeeded, as sole heir and suc- ; -ceisor in all his father's undertakings. In 1028 the presidency of the International Raw Steel Cartel came to tThygsen, who visited Rumania and ; [Italy to induce them to join it. ' i In more recent years he . has held . Vi poste a» a member of the Central Committee of the Reichsbank ami a Prussian State councillor, -while he was also a .member of the Reichstag.