HESS AS A CONSCIENCESTRICKEN REBEL

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 195, 15 May 1941, Page 9

HESS AS A CONSCIENCESTRICKEN REBEL

Cautious London View

APPARENT FLURRY IN BERLIN Party Officials’ Statement (By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Received May 14, 7.40 p.m.) LONDON, May 14. According to a usually reliable o quarter yesterday, statements that have been made by Herr Hess indicate that he had undergone a change of heart and believes that Germany is headed for disaster. He believes that he was misguided and talks like a man with a guilty conscience. He is eager to dissociate himself from Nazi policy in order to escape the responsibility for it. It was revealed that Hess greeted his capturer with the words. “I have come to save humanity.” Hess, in his first interviews, talked generalities, indicating that the question of full German partnership with Russia might be die chief motive of his behaviour. Hess appeared to be affected by almost religious fervour. “The Times” says: “The British authorities will naturally bear in mind that the whole Hess affair may be a fantastic German plan, and that the German leaders for their own purposes wish the world to believe that the ‘maggot is already in the apple.’ Goebbels has used such inverse propaganda before now. But all the evidence so far suggests that Hess deliberately escaped. “Hess is believed to have become more and more disgusted at the trickery and shamelessness of Hitler’s entourage and, furtliermoie, to have been horrified by the bloodshed round him and the prospect of still further bloodshed. Hess, more than any other German leader, has always insisted that the true aim of the German army should be a final peace.” Though Hess acted alone, “The Times” says, there must be many people in Germany who are envying his exploit and drawing from it confirmation of their own doubts about the issue of the campaign of brutal conquest and domination on which Hitler’s ambition launched the German nation.

Hess’s arrival in Britain is “one of the most fantastic episodes in history,” says the “Daily Mail.” “Big men like him don’t desert a cause which is sound at heart. He must know within himself that Germany’s prospects are not good, or he would not come to ‘beaten’ England. Nevertheless, we must not lose our sense of proportion. Because Hess has come over it does not mean that a split in the German facade is imminent or that Germany is going to crack.” A Berlin message today states that Herr Hitler held a meeting of all Reich leaders and gauleiters, with Field-Marshal Goering present. The meeting, after listening to Hitler, accorded him “an overwhelming demonstration of their determination to go on to victory.” Officials in Berlin declared: “We do not recognize any statements Hess may make in England. We know the British rulers will make every' crude misuse of this situation, and who knows by what ugly means some sort of confession may be extracted from him? We cannot even be certain that he has made any of the statements that are attributed to him.”

They added that no formal steps 'have yet been taken to dismiss Hess from the Nazi Party', “but obviously such a man is unworthy, to be a party member.”