BLOOD GUILT OF HESS

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

BLOOD GUILT OF HESS

As Bad As The Worst, Say Exiles BLOW TO GERMANY Speculative Reasons For Action (.British Official Wireless and Press Assn.) (Received May 14, 7.30 p.m.) LONDON, May 13. “Die Zeitung,” the Germanlanguage newspaper published in London by anti-Nazi refugees, says in’ a leading article: "We must earnestly warn against the easy sentimentality of some Britishers who tend to convey an impression that Hess is ‘not so bad.’ Do not make any mistake: he is as bad as the worst of them. His hands are stained with the blood of thousands of innocent people. His fanaticism and ruthlessness match that of Himmler and Streicher, if anything, and by it he has distinguished himself among his fellow criminals. “It is'his impudence which has always made him specially suited to deny atrocities with an air ot offended honesty. He did this from the tortures in the concentration camps to the war preparations against Czechoslovakia. “Germany has suffered a devastating defeat on the moral and political battlefield which may be decisive if the propaganda strategists know how to use it.” - Mr. Churchill, according to ‘ Die Zeitung,” has summed up the situation resulting from Hess’s flight in the eminently Churchillian phrase: “The maggot is in the apple.” The newspaper summarizes the possible reasons for the flight. “He may,” it says, “have got on one of Himmler s black lists and have had an inkling of it. He may have had serious political differences with his colleagues. “Inside Information.”

“He may, sooner than the less initiated, have obtained inside information about the real situation in Germany and thereupon acted as many of the lesser criminals will act when the zero hour is approached—try to get himself out of trouble and play the penitent sinner. “Finally, this ‘most loyal of the loyal (as he was styled till yesterday) has perhaps been sent only to simulate treason and really make a last attempt at creating confusion among the one-time friends of the Nazis in England. If this is the case, one may rest assured that it will be foiled by the vigilance of the British Government.”

The newspaper adds: “Hess has — leaving Roehm aside —been Hitler’s first and closest associate. He was the joint founder of the Storm Troops, the joint author of “Mein Kampf,” and one of those mainly responsible for the slaughter of June 30, 1934. When this man plays the unoffending husband and father nobody should become his dupe. This flight is a ground for grim satisfaction, and not for soft-hearted pardon.” Otto Strasser, leader of the antiHitler “Black Front,” who is now m Canada, said that the flight shows the jealousy between the German army chiefs and the Nazi Party. If Goering came to power, he stated, Hess’s life as leader of the Nazi Party would not be worth a moment's purchase.

MENTION IN COMMONS Imagination Baffled, Says Mr. Churchill (British Official Wireless.) (Received May 14, 7 p.m.) RUGBY, May 13. Referring to Herr Hess, Mr. Churchill in the House of Commons stated: “I have nothing to add at present to the statement that has been issued. Obviously a further statement will be made in the near future on the flight to this country of this very high and important Nazi leader.” Mr. Churchill’s assurance of a further statement was given in response to a number of questions. One member asked Mr. Churchill to see that the Minister of Information "dealt with the news of Hess’s flight with skill and imagination.” After’ an outburst of laughter, Mr. Churchill replied, “I had the opportunity of being in company with the Minister of Information up to a very late hour last night, but 1 think this is one of these eases where the imagination is somewhat baffled by the facts as they present themselves.”

Hess’s arrival, said the Minister of Information, Mr. Dull’ Cooper, in a statement issued today, showed the first break in the Nazi Party since Hitler murdered a huge bloc of his followers on June 30, 1934. -Here is a man,’’ Mr. Dull Cooper added, “who was so close to him, a. man obviously in possession of his faculties since he was able to accomplish the flight successfully, a man who, with the advantages be must have been enjoying in Germany—and we all know what the advantages are of a tyrant’s friends—yet prefers to leave that unhappy, miserable country and fly at tremendous risk to himself to land on what is still a country of the free.”

NAZI PARTY MACHINES

Gau System Explained

The latest meeting of Nazi Party leaders and Gauleiters convened by Herr Hitler has, in view of the defeeHon of Herr Hess, particular interest. A description of the internal propaganda system of the Nazi machine was ■ given from London recently. It was based on the Gau (district) system. When the party leaders wish to inform the German public of a coming move or development the Gauleiters (district chiefs) areca’.led together and ■ told what the leaders have decided to ' 101 l the people. The Gauleiters I bon go back Io I heir gaus and inform their . immediate subordinales. The news is passed from these subordinates to lhe next lower order of officials, and so on . till the information reaches Hie "block” . leaders. The “block” Is the -lowest, unit i of the party machine and consists of I approximately 70 people, each of whom ’ is personally known to the block leader. It is the duty of the block leader to explain verbally to each of his block lhe party plans. Each German, therefore, is given the roiling that he is being kepi informed by the Fuehrer I of the conduct of affairs. It is this system, it was commented,

' that explains the comparative calm j with which the German people received i the revolutionary change of policy reI garding the Soviet Union, which as--1 founded the world but produced no repercussions in Germany itself