PURGE PROCEEDING

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 36, 12 February 1938, Page 9

PURGE PROCEEDING

ALL OFFICERS OPEN TO SUSPICION

NO POWER TO RESIST

CONTROL OF FRONTIERS

(Received February 12, 11 a.m.) BERLIN, February 11. While life in Germany appears to be normal, there seems to. be no doubt that Herr Hitler's purge of discontented elements in the army is relentlessly proceeding. Stricter control has been established in the Austrian and Belgian frontiers, but reports that they have been closed are without foundation. As the army is not in a position to resist forcefully, the power of the higher officer class does not exist today. Though most of the officers are Monarchists and disagree with, most of the Nazi policy, they are powerless to enforce the views of foreigners unable to realise the enormous power of the Gestapo, which keeps the closest watch on files and dossiers. All are open to the slightest suspicion* no matter how exalted their rank. There is reason to believe,that those officers suspected of holding questionable political views, yielding to the advice of authority, are resigning. It is also possible that a number of industrialists and business men have been arrested, and that the purge is extending to the nobility, many of whom are potential rallying points of discontent.