"HEIL, HITLER"

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXII, Issue 4639, 13 May 1938, Page 6

"HEIL, HITLER"

HOUR *IN VIENNA. FUHRER'S TRIUMPH. A WOMAN LOOKS ON. London, April 13. A New Zeaalnder who saw Hitler enter Vienna in triumph last month, Madame Winnie Fraser (Dunedin), the well known singer, has returned to London with the most vivid recollections —and a mind uneasily impressed by the shadows of a European war. "The scenes in Vienna were amazing," Madame Fraser said to-day. "One hour before Hitler made his intentions known the people were crying out in the streets, 'Red, white, red (the Austrian national colours), Hitler's dead.' An hour later they were all holding up their right arms and shouting 'Heil Hitler!'"

"For hours we watched the German troops streaming into the city, every detail perfect, and not a chin strap out of place. Every square and -public building was drenched with the Nazi flags—goodness knows where they all came from so quickly. All the time masses of aeroplanes roared overhead monotonously, and the noise was deafening. "There was the greatest excitement in the streets when the news first became known, but no disorders. The German police, 25,000 strong, soon took over control, and Austrian police who had been heads of departments only a few hours before, were sent out on ordinary patrol duty. "I must say I was very greatly impressed by Hitler when he drove down the Mariahilferstrasse. He was dressed simply in a khaki uniform, in striking contrast to the be-monocled, epauletted, lounging staff, all typical swaggering Prussian militarists.

Oratorical Crescendo

"Hitler's gift to stir the crowds by his oratory is really exciting. He begins by speaking very quietly, slowly, but clearly. Gradually he increases his pace, faster and faster, speaking more loudly, almost shouting, and gesticulating violently. Then he stops. The crowd roars its applause, and when the last sounds have died away, again he starts in that low, quiet voice. I think the ancient Greeks used to practise a similar trick. "I was interested to hear him and see him again a week or two later, when he launched the new 'Strength Through Joy' ship at Hamburg. He and his staff were staying on the fifth floor of an hotel in which the British Women's Club had arranged an afternoon meeting. We had the greatest difficulty in reaching the building. "Hitler is surrounded literally by hundreds of guards wherever he goes. We had to produce badges showing the Union Jack almost at every step. It had been arranged previously that I should sing 'Land of Hope and Glory,' and, really, I have never sung it with so much enthusiasm as I did on that afternoon with the Fuhrer away up on the fifth floor. And I have never heard an audience join in and sing it more loudly! I had many conversations with Germans. Several of them told me, 'You never defeated us in the last war. You never beat our army, our navy or our air force. It was the blockade that beat us. It will be different :n the next war.'

"I asked them 'So there is going to be a next war?'

Access to the Sea.

" 'Of course there is,' I was told. i 'This time we shall not have just one little strip of coastline to be cut off. We shall have other means of reaching the sea. We have got all our great cool stores ready too. It will !-e different next time.' "The longer I stayed in Germany," Madame Fraser added, "the more I became convinced that the Germans are shamming- when they say that they are defending themselves, and the countries they are 'absorbing' from Bolshevism. It seems to me that it is the British Empire they are after. We have got what they want."

Madame Fraser is to be presented at Court on May 25. She intends to enjoy the London season, to see something of the British Empire Exhibition in Glasgow, and to return to New Zealand in October after an absence of three years travelling abroad.