HITLER'S HUGE MAJORITY

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21746, 31 March 1936, Page 11

HITLER'S HUGE MAJORITY

; j CROWD’S ADULATION i - j NEARLY WHOLE NATION VOTES ■ JUBILATION THROUGHOUT GERMANY ': tVNITZD ?USS ASiCCUTIO.I—COFIS-uHT.} ■ (Received March 30, 8.45 p.m.) I BERLIN. March 30. I The official provisional figures in | the whole of the German electorate i for the Reichstag elections are:— ; For Herr Hitler .. 44.389.14 C I Against Herr Hitler .. 542.59S : There were 476.153 persons who ; abstained from voting. The “Ja" ■ vote was thus 97.75 per cent, of the : total electorate. i The Berlin correspondent of the i "Daily Telegraph" says that the i anti-Hitler vote consists of invalid or spoilt papers. The new Reich- ; stag will probably number exactly TOO. ' Shortly after midnight Herr Hit--1 ler was serenaded by choirs sing- ; ing the couplet; j "Dearest leader, show your head. ; For even you must go to bed." j Herr Hitler duly reappeared on ' the balcony and was greeted with ; wild shouts of “Hell” from scores |of thousands. The Fuhrer, evidently ; under the influence of deep emot lion, strode swiftly to the centre of : the balcony and raised his arm in salute. He repeated this from other parts of the balcony so as to be visible to the remainder of the crowd. Bands played “Deutschland Über Alles” and the “Horstwessel Song." the multitude fervently joining in. Herr Hitler received the election committee, headed by Dr. Goebbels vMinister for Propaganda), and thanked them. Dr. Goebbels ordered the whole population to display flags to-day in celebration of Herr Hitler's triumph. Orderly Polling Complete calm marked the voting, v/hich was done with correctness, orderliness, and dignity, in spite of its being the first for many years in which the sale of beer and spirits was permitted. Many polling booths were situated at hotels and beer gardens. Several communists and socialists at Frankfurt were arrested for inj setting anti-Hitler pamphlets in private letter boxes. The voting was practically com- ! pleted fay 4 p.m. The most prompt ' community was the Wiebelsdorf. ' Thuringia, where the 54 adults had voted for Herr Hitler by 9.40 a.m. Many districts equalled this percentage. ! Results arrived from all parts of t the world. The first negative votes i recorded were from Egypt, where { the German residents of Alexandria! embarked on a liner and were taken! 20 m lies to sea. They cast 1200 votes ( for Herr Hitler and 10 against. ‘Germans in Rumania, who also voted at sea. polled 1052 for Herr Hitler and 13 against. Coblenz, in the Rhineland, voted 5700 for and 386 against. The Sarr yotes were 99.7 per cent, in favour of Herr Hitler. The 104 passengers and crew of the airship Hindenburg, polling on the ship, polled 100 per cent, for Herr Hitler. The former Prince Rupprecht and his wife did not vote. An elderly male invalid, a resident of Neukolln, was taken to the polls, voted and went home and died of heart failure, 1 Special portable booths surrounded hospital patients. The inmates of the Dachau concentration camp were allowed to vote at booths within a locked enclosure. j The citizens ■of Munich, where Herr Hitler was in gaol in 1923, were so eager to vote for him that they ; did not bother to observe the sec- , rccy of the ballot. Nation rf “Yes Men" Herr Hitler showed himself on the balcony of the Chancellery < several times during the election evening abovj wildly cheering and : singing crowds. %vho shouted menacingly when it was announced by wireless that thousands of anti-Hit- | ler votes had been cast. i [ “Angriff" brought out a special [ edition announcing “the greatest ‘ victory in history.” < The results were brought to the town halls and then to the Ministry for Propaganda in Berlin for computing. The first result, broadcast at 8.30 p.m., disclosed that 981 per cent, of the 200,000 electors had polled and that 99.24 per cent, of the V9tes favoured Herr Hitler. Announcements proceeded steadily abofit this ratio, a message at 9.55 p.m. showing 33,027,207 votes for . Herr Hitler and 388,494 against. 1 It could safely be said that Ger- s many had demonstrated that it was * a nation of “yes men.” c «... t Rejoicing at Results £ An earlier message said: The result of the elections, which was a foregone conclusion, is hailed throughout Germany with jubilation, the pro-Hitler poll being nearly 100 per oent. compared with an 88.1 per cent, affirmative when 95 per cent, of the electorate polled . in the 1934 plebiscite. Crowds flocked into the sunlit streets to-day to go to the polls, fox' this was the first day on which sunshine had been experienced for a ( week. Every voter, as he left the t polling station, received a button inscribed “Freedom and Bread,” one . of the latest slogans. 1 All differences were forgotten today. For instance, the Reverend Mother at the Convent at Waldassen asked for a polling station with- » in the convent walls, so that every nun could vote for Herr Hitler. r , Trains bringing exiles from abroad S( were specially welcomed. tl Herr Hitler and Dr. Goebbels, p who have returned from Cologne, both voted early. The blare of brass bands, the tramp of Brown Shirts and Black a : Guards, and the rattle of long t strings of lorries packed with young- $ sters of the Labour Front, the Hitler t

Youth Movement, and other organisations resounded through the Berlin streets early this morning. The occupants of t the lorries waved flags and shouted the order. “Wake up. slothful citizens’’ Brown-shirted sandwichmen stood outside the booths, carrying boards which bore the slogan: “My vote is my thanks to the Fuhrer."

“UNREALITY” OF ELECTION SIZE OF MAJORITY A PROOF (Received March 30, 8.2 p.m.) LONDON. March 29. The “News Chronicle,” in a leading article, says: “The monstrous size of the German election majority proves its unreality. It is inconceivable that so vast a mass of electors, except under pressure, could so nearly approach unanimity.”

GERMANS FLY TO THE POLL

(Received March 30, 9.20 p.m.) LONDON, Twenty Germans working at Croydon aerodrome flew to Cologne to vote. The whole German Embassy staff in Paris also went by .air to Cologne.