DISCONTENT WITH HITLER COVERNMENT

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 252, 23 October 1943, Page 5

DISCONTENT WITH HITLER COVERNMENT

GERMANS PROTEST Catholic Persecutions Cause Enmity N.Z. Press Association—Copyright Rec. 11 a.m. LONDON, Oct. 22. Further _ enlightenment on the gloom which recent war developments have cast over Germany is given by a traveller who has just returned from the Reich. When interviewed by the Stockholm newspaper Dagens Nyheter, the traveller declared that war dis-! illusionment and criticism of the i German Government were openly expressed in German cities, especi-1 ally in Munich, where a movement was on foot for an independent Danube monarchy after the war. "The persecution of Catholics and the closing of monasteries in Munich," he added, "has created most bitter anti-Nazi feelings and enmity against Prussia. Hamburg at first took the Allied bombing raids with British phlegm, but quarrels are now continually breaking out among the nerve-frayed population. Plundering and petty theft is rife. Workers Absent After Raids "I-heard one worker say, 'Unless I get a better place to live I shall go sick. I have tired of not having a roof over my head, with rain dripping on to my bed. Forty per cent of the workers at my factory disappeared after raids, yet they Avant us to spend our spare time building stone bungalows-for those who have been bombed out.'" The traveller added that there is the same pessimism in Berlin. The discontent is directed against the Government, not against the British who have bombed them. "We fully realise the temporary weakness of our position, but we do not for this reason overlook our strength and the chances of victory which are bound up with this j strength," says Goebbels, Nazi Propaganda Minister, in an article in Das Reich. "Our military position this summer," he adds, "suffered something of a decline owing to the treachery of the Italian Royal House. This caused disengaging movements on the eastern front, as we had to withdraw divisions from the east to cover our southern flank. This made the shortening of the eastern front necessary. Trying Test in Russia "However, what happened in Russia bears no relation to the dangers which Italy's desertion would have brought on us if the enemy had had | his way. Our command was confronted with an extraordinarily trying test. We fully realise how sorely in the last four months our eastern armies have been tried. "This war was forced on us. Therefore it is a war of defence in the proper meaning of the word. We must temporarily be content with defensive successes and take advantage of them to strengthen our general position. "Our failure in November, 191S, has made the whole world believe that our moral steadfastness particularly is suspectible. That is why it is now so difficult to make the world, and above all our enemies, realise that the collapse of 1918 was a unique and tragic event in our history which -will not and cannot be repeated." German Morale Declines "A serious decline has occurred in German morale," says the Daily Telegraph. "Reports from many quarters show that a crisis must develop if the Nazis fail to stop the rot. The German home broadcasts are more guarded than the foreign broadcasts, but, nevertheless, the average German knows that the Wehrmacht has suffered a long series of defeats in Rus.sia, and doubts whether the tide can be , stemmed. "Underground reports agree that this pessimistic view is common j throughout Germany. There is a belief that Germany cannot win the war, and hopes of a compromise peace are fading. The Germans generally realise that the U-boat campaign has failed, and for every intelligent German the agreement between Britain and Portugal concerning the Azores has killed any lingering hope of victory in the j Atlantic." i