PEACE MOVE BY HITLER

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23168, 4 November 1940, Page 7

PEACE MOVE BY HITLER

GERMAN DUKE GOING

TO AMERICA

REPORTED INTERVIEW

WITH FUEHRER

(UNITED MESS ASSOCIATION—COPYIUGIIT.)

(Received November 3, 11 p.m.)

LONDON, November 3,

Herr Hitler has sent a secret peace emissary to America, according to an article by Mr George Slocombc in the “Sunday Express.” The article declares that the emissary Is Duke Charles Alexander of Wurtembcrg, who fought in the German Army during the Great War and afterwards became a Benedictine monk under the name of Father Odo,

A report of an Interview between Herr Hitler and the Duke is also contained in the article. Herr Hitler said: “This is your important task in America. You must persuade Americans that I intend to free Europe not only of Communism but also of militarism, and that I will impose a totalitarian peace.”

The German “duke-cum-prlcst," says tiie article, was apparently much Impressed, for he said after the interview that Herr Hitler had revealed himself as a great statesman and, mdre than that, as a super-man.

Mr Slocombc says- that Just before the outbreak of the war this new emissary visited London on behalf of the hundreds of thousands cf persecuted Catholics in Germany. He was received by Queen Mary at Marlborough House, and was granted several hundred thousand pounds from Lord Baldwin’s fund.

At the time of his visit to London the Duke made no secret of his hostility to the paganism of the Nazi regime. He appears to have been won over by a statement by Herr Hitler that he had never renounced the Catholic faith and was still a good Catholic.

There is no news of the Duke’s arrival in America,

The “Sunday Despatch” says that Herr Hitler’s new peace plan has been delivered to Washington via the American Embassy in Paris. “HenHitler intended to bring the plan into operation on the basis of maintaining the status quo in Europe after bringing' France and Spain into the Axis grouping and subjugating the Balkans,” it says. “This meant Europe for Germany, Africa for Italy and Germany, Asia for Japan, and the British Empire for Britain. By this plan Herr Hitler hoped to keep the United Slates out of the war and isolate the British Erm pire which could be attacked after a short period of peace. Greece, however, resisted the Italian attack, Spain has not yet entered the Axis grouping, and even Marshal Petain’s France is proving diflicult.” “The Observer” says: “Whatever the real explanation of the Italian blunder in placing the Italian mainland and the Rumanian oilfields within easy reach of British bombers, it is certain that Herr Hitler has again been* forced