STRAIN FELT

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21632, 8 February 1945, Page 5

STRAIN FELT

GERMAN ECONOMY SIGNS OF CHAOS SLUMP IITcONTROL DIETMAR’S~COMPLAINT (11.30 a.m.) LONDON. Feb. 7. Reports reaching London suggest that there are signs that the administrative . machinery of Germany is breaking down under the strain of the bombing and invasion. It is stated that some bank notes no longer bear the watermark, which was an important protection against forgery. There are chaos and confusion in propaganda, particularly in radio. The tax collection, it is stated, has been given up and warrants for arrest abandoned. In brief, there is general, disorganisation, and effective control over 'the life of the country recently slipped from the hands of the authorities. Confirmation of these reports was found in yesterday’s home broadcast by General Dietmar, who is regarded as the spokesman for the High Command. “Fighting in one’s own country,” he points out, “is not always an advantage, as a breakdown of the State’s authority affects the morale of the fighting soldier.” He complained that the Allies offered Germany no alternative to unconditional surrender, “which means that we should sign a blank cheque for those who want to annihilate us.” Broadcasts “Out of Gear”

The German News Agency's home and overseas radio services were still disorganised to-day. The carrying capacity of the agency’s transmitter has been cut to less than half its normal volume with the result that the home and European services have been able to work only with long intervals. The Overseas News Agency failed to come on the air altogether this morning.

Reuter’s correspondent says that this breakdown in the principal German news services has come at a particularly inopportune moment for Dr. Goebbcls’ propaganda machine which is using all the resources to warn the German people against the call for surrender which Berlin expects from the “Big Three” conference. There are signs of disintegration in the German news propaganda services, states the Daily Telegraph. For instance, the broadcasts to the home front, which hitherto have been maintained more or less normally, have began to get out. of gear; secondly, the news bulletins were for the first time reduced in the morning and afternoon to a few minutes; thirdly, the mid-day comment on developments in the political and military fields, was omitted without explanation. Western Attack Dreaded The radio announcer 90 minutes later apologised for the absence of the talk, which came on 105 minutes later, when Dr. Goebbels’ close collaborator, Herr Kreigk. had the unenviable task of saying: “Germany will have net only to hold the Russians on the Oder but must also be prepared for imminent new Allied offensives in the West.” There were protracted periods of silence also in .the transmissions of propaganda by the German News Agency and the Overseas News Agency. The Daily Telegraph’s correspondent in Stockholm repm-ts that Templehof airfield in Berlin is still unusable after the raid last Saturday. The Berlin-Copenhagen air service was cancelled yesterday. There are in the future only two trips week(y instead of daily between Berlin and Stockholm.