EMBASSY EFFECTS SALE

Greymouth Evening Star, 7 December 1945, Page 10

EMBASSY EFFECTS SALE

HITLER PICTURES WITHDRAWN LONDON, December 5. The Ministry of Works withdrew the pictures of Hitler from the sale of German Embassy effects. The Ministry concluded from the public reaction to the sale of Hitler’s bust that it would be better to withhold the pictures. One of the agents at to-day’s sale was acting for a businessman who had instructed him to go to any figure to preyent articles faldling into the hands of Fascist sypmathisers. been The sale of the contents of the Embassy has been completed, with the total receipts amountig to £70,926. The “Daily Mail” stated: The Federal Socialist Party made their first public appearance on the last day of the sale of the German Embassy furniture. Members attended tp bid for five photographs of Hitler. Six of the members, three of whom are former undergraduates, had £5OO raised “from nowhere” with which to buy the pictures, which would have been “strategically valuable to the movement.” This mission was a failure. The photographs were withdrawn from the sale by the Government. One member of the Party, Mr. John Wood, aged 23, said that their aim was “to build up a federation in Europe against the mighty blocs of Russia and America.” He added: “I cannot say whether we regard Germany as the centre of that federation.”