From Week to Week

Grey River Argus, 8 October 1942, Page 7

From Week to Week

(By

H. Winston Rhodes)

The Hess Mission The dramatic flight of Hess was a nine days’ wonder. As far as official Statements in Britain were concerned it remained an unsolved mystery, but commentators all over the world interpreted it as a last attempt to persuade those in Britain who. were filled with hatred of the Soviet Union and not unwilling to make terms with Hitler to return to the Munich policy of appeasement.

This week a cable from New York, quoting a Stockholm newspaper controlled by the Nazis, gives the first detailed version of the object of the Hess mission. It is stated that the proposal was that Britain should participate in an antiBolshevik war after which Russia would be partitioned in several national smaller states, the Reich to control the Ukraine and the Caucasian oilfields. Britain’s mandates were to be guaranteed. Germany’s colonies returned, “help to Bolshevik China’’ cancelled and the Maritime provinces of the Soviet Union and the raw materials from the Dutch East Indies handed over to Japan.

It is clear that a report coming from a Nazi source must always be received with suspicion, and it is quite possible that the release of the above details is intended to create difficulties between Britain. America and the Soviet-Union. Nevertheless, it must be admitted that the conspiracy of silence which surrounded the Hess mystery™ in Britain has helped to create the conditions which may be stimulating the- Nazis to use the old story of the dramatic flight to their possible advantage.

If the Nazi version is the true one, and it agrees with the suspicions of many commentators, it is obvious that Hess failed. Should we therefore be content to ask no further questions? By no means. The people have a right to know why it was found necessary to issue misleading reports, why the incident was hurriedly closed, whether it was discovered that well-known Municheers were willing to agree to Hitler’s terms. Hess and Second Front The New York cable relating the Nazi version of the Hess mission was dated October 3. On September 11 the Australian paper “Progress” published a cartoon showing Hess and Hitler back to back, winking at each other over their shoulders and saying “No Second Front as yet.” The Hess incident had not been forgotten several weeks before the New York cable. A few days before the Soviet press had for the first time referred openly to the Tory Municheer campaign to sabotage the Second Front, .

And Ilya Ehrenburg, the wellknown Soviet journalist, had written “Three years ago the Municheers were revered as sages. A year ago people had begun to call them cautious.' Now they are called fainthearts, and before long they will be branded as traitors”.

The military details and possibilities of a Second Front are one thing and a campaign to prevent the opening of a second front- is another. What requires examination is how far politics have become mixed up with military requirements. We know as w'ell as we know anything that the efficiency of the British and American war effort has been hindered by the demands for private profit. We know as well as we know anything that there are many officials still occupying positions; of responsibility who are not disturbed by Russia's enormous losses and who in the past, the very recent past, have lost no opportunity to misrepresent the Soviet Union

No one can doubt the direction which public opinion is taking. The American paper “Life” uses the headline “England Falls in Love with Russia,” and states “England has lost its heart to .Russia.” At a time when- the fight of the democracies is a web of surrenders, “satisfactory withdrawals,” future plans and talk, only the Red Army is throwing crushing blows at. the Axis. The realistic English get the point, more clearly than Americans. As a result, they just plain love the Russians. without reservation or quibble. When the face of Joseph Stalin flashes on the screen in England, the housethunders with applause and cheers”

This was published before the battle for Stalingrad, and there is every reason to believe that public opinion has gone even further in tip-* direction of admiration of the gigantic Soviet defence. The clamour for the opening of the Second Front has been described as a political campaign, but unless it is admitted that the people of England are wholly under the domination of the left, such a description is far wide of the mark. What has to be discovered, and discovered quickly, is whether the strategy of Britain ano America is being influenced by the Municheers who still play a large part in the world of officialdom. When General Stilwell said “Our two main needs are the second front and the re-taking of Burma. Give me Rangoon and I promise to bomb Japan.” he gave voice to the people’s demands in the two most vital sectors of the war. It was not the 1 voice ol Hess nor the voice of (hose who are willing to allow the Red Army to fight the main battle against fascism.