HITLER LOSES GROUND

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20140, 9 January 1940, Page 5

HITLER LOSES GROUND

SIGNIFICANT PAMPHLET FREDERICK’S HEIR LONDON, Dec. 22. Observers declare that even before the scuttling of the Admiral Graf Spee caused shame and indignation among older men of the services Herr Hitler was losing ground among the -fighting forces. Passages from a new pamphlet by Colonel Hesse, a General Staff Officer, which has been issued to the troops, have excited comment. Herr Hitler is described as Frederick the Great’s heir, while previously the Nazis invariably described' Frederick as the forerunner of national socialism. Commentators declare that Colonel Hesse’s statement leaves room for a declaration that Herr Hitler is not the legitimate heir, thereby making it possible to say that Frederick’s mantle should really have fallen elsewhere. It is pointed out that it is always possible to make a mistake about an heir. It is noted with interest that Colonel Hesse declares that, before the war, Germany wanted only “what belonged to her,” and he includes in this category the Rhineland, Austria, and the Siidetenland (Czecho-Slovakia), but he does not mention Bohemia or Moravia (the present German protectorate). He goes on to declare that Germany possesses the finest army, the strongest leaders, and the greatest organisation, but winds up, nevertheless, on an appealing note: “Let us only look to the strong points. Let us have confidence in our good and just cause Let us banish doubts arising here and there, perhaps, even in our own hearts.”