GERMAN MORALE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 3, 3 July 1943, Page 5

GERMAN MORALE

BOLSTERING CAMPAIGN

APPEAL BY DR. GOEBBELS (By TelegmpU—Press Association— CopyrißDt.l Rec. 12.30 p.m. LONDON, July 2. A systematic campaign to bolster up morale has been launched in Germany, says the Berlin correspondent of the Swiss newspaper "Neve Zurcher Zeitung." Press and radio are .attempting to contradict the theory that 1943 is equivalent to 1918.

Dr. Goebbels, in "Das Reich," is appealing for national discipline and urging the public" not to lose their nerve and to have confidence in the present Government. The correspondent comments: "That such an appeal from such a quarter is necessary speaks volumes. There is no doubt! that the population is undergoing a difficult psychological period." The correspondent quotes an article in the "Brusseler Zeitung," published . m Brussels for the army of occupation, which asserts: "No month of the war has caused Germany greater psychological strain than June, 1943. Of late a vacuum has set in. All those events and considerations which hitherto seemed to be driving us forward in a favourable direction now appear to have vanished. It is a period of countless questions and few answers. "The very painful impression created in Germany by the severe de* feats in Stalingrad and Tunisia has not yet been completely removed. Although at the time panic and complete collaose of morale were averted, there is no denying that these reverses are still having powerful after-effects. Moreover, there have been no developments in other war areas which might create a better atmosphere at home. Submarine war, so long the pride of German strategy, at present is almost completely suspended, and British and American bombers are inflicting terrible devastation in the Ruhr." Berlin radio, quoting Dr. Goebbels, said: "The Germans were spoiled by quick victories at the beginning of the war, and now that we have to defend our possessions -with all our strength the nation must show that it can take it in air warfare." German rage against the air-raid devastation following Cologne's second disasti-ous Visitation Tias begun to take new and sinister forms, says the correspondent of the "Daily Mail" on the German frontier. - "Swiss newspapers report that the Germans are discussing gas warfare," the correspondent adds. . "The comment is made that the Bufferings caused by British phosphorous bombs exceed the horrors of gas warfare. The question is being asked whether Germany should attempt to use gas as a reprisal."