THE DIVIDED NAZIS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 121, 18 November 1939, Page 14

THE DIVIDED NAZIS

COURSE IN THE WAR

GERMANS AND GOVERNMENT

' The reports of dissension among the Nazi leaders being responsible for the failure to push on with;an offensive giye an explanation ,pf the curious dif- { ference between German words and German blows over the last month or . so. The Nazi leaders have been promising action; air on the British. Fleet, a renewed submarine campaign, and the bombing of British cities. A survey of the news from Germany, indeed, shows how remarkably frequent threats have been. Yet action has not followed on the scale promised. That unrest exists in Germany is undoubted. In an article published in "The Spectator" . recently Robert Powell declared that "the facts of the discontent, shortage of foodstuffs, raw materials, etc., are all true," but discussing the chances of action springing from them, pointed out that obtaining adequate knowledge of the situation has been impossible in Germany for six years, and that the nation is more apathetic and fatalistic than ever before. The German had been told so often that Britain and France would not fight over Danzig that he has hardly grasped the fact that they are-fighting even «today. In view of this ignorance, Mr. Powell pointed out, the Germans are not likely to accept the British and French versions of events suddenly. "Encirclement" will riot appear to them as a defensive action when shells are bursting over them. Three million Germans under arms have also been • busy extending the Reich, and in their ranks are many workers on whom the hopes of the revolutionaries have been set. Against sabotage the Gestapo (Secret Police) will be savage and ruthless. Moreover, Germany has been living in an atmosphere of "war-peace" for so long that anti-Nazis are not likely to find their work easy. This, view was reinforced by the general tone of some correspondence in "The Times" recently, in the course of which one correspondent declared that the German people are now so imbued with the doctrines, of National Socialism that their regeneration is going to be a matter .'of some difficulty. Further confirming- this attitude is a statement in the news columns of "The Times" last month that neutrals who have close . contacts in Germany were in doubt as to whether there, existed in the Reich any elements' capable of setting up a stable Government'in place of the .Nazi regime. They point out that there are • great vested interests behind the regime, that all posts of responsibility are filled by 100 j per cent. Nazis, and that no one else has any. opportunity of influencing the course of events. Since the elimination of Blomberg, Fritsch, and. Beck it is -thought doubtful if there are even any generals opposed to the Nazis. . •At the same" time it is worth recalling that any great decision which may be pending will be made by Hitler without any outside assistance. Sir Nevile Henderson, former British Ambassador to Germany, in his final report to the Foreign Office, issued-last month, declared that "even the most absolute of dictators is susceptible to the influence of his surroundings. Nevertheless, Hitler's decisions, his calculations, and his opportunism were his own. Goering once said-to me: 'When a decision is* to

be taken none of us counts more than '"the", stories on which we are standing. It is the Fuhrer alone who decides.' Sir Nevile added, however, that he was convinced that if anyone did have any influence with.Hitler in the days before the Polish war began it was his generals.