QUESTIONS ASKED

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 114, 16 May 1941, Page 9

QUESTIONS ASKED

COMMONS REPLIES

Mr. Churchill On Delay Of

Hess News

Rec. noon.

RUGBY, May 15.

Questions were addressed to Mr. Churchill in the House of Commons regarding Hess, and in replying to a question as to why the Minister of Information did not take steps to anticipate the German broadcast alleging the insanity of Hess, Mr. Churchill said: "It may be as well that the Minister of Information did not do so, as the suggestion has since been refuted."

Replying to a further suggestion that it was unfortunate that 48 hours were allowed to elapse before the news was given, and the Germans were thus allowed time to publish their version, Mr. Churchill said that it was not unfortunate, but if it had been it would have been unavoidable.

"We had established that the man had landed, but we only had evidence which, while it was most interesting, couldTiot be considered conclusive,"] he added. "I immediately sent up an official who knew the deputy-] Fuehrer and who spoke to him in good German, and in fluent German, and while that was proceeding the German announcement came out of the insanity of Hess and his flight. By that time what had hitherto been surmised, had emerged into a definite certainty." | The tide of interest in the motives of Hess received new impetus last night when it was reported that he had told the people at the farm where he landed of the hardships now being experienced in Germany, and also of the great distress and suffering prevailing among the German people as the result of the Royal Air Force raids against towns, says an earlier cable message. Duke's Estate Was Objective Hess added that he had made the Cuke of Hamilton's estate his objective because he had valuable information to give the Duke, whom he lmew before the war. This information would be of great use to Britain in overthrowing the tyranny now prevailing in the Reich. Hess declared he was fed up with the war and with life in Germany. Hess also said that he had made the most painstaking preparations for the flight from Germany, and this statement is borne out by his maps, on which all of the Duke's estates are ringed in blue pencil. Hess actually landed 15 miles from Dungavel, and had he reached the Duke's mansion he would have found that the Duke was absent, for he is now serving in the Royal Air Force with the rank of air commodore. Dungavel is used as a ttulitary convalescent hospital and we Duke rarely visits there.