B.B.C. LONDON LETTER

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 4646, 29 June 1944, Page 1

8.8.C. LONDON LETTER

A , WEEKLY MISCELLANY The News Leaves a Bad Taste? In a copy of the Austrian newspaper ‘Oberdonauzcitung’ sent to the .BBC in London is a report that the paper has received a number of letters from soldiers at the front suggesting that the paper should have wider margins and be thinner. Reason? Printer’s ink does not taste very pleasant when smoked. Many a True Word spoken in Earnest. Defending the Nazi racial theory, an editorial in a German newspaper received in the BBC’s European De partment explains that this docs not rest on a physical basis but on a spiritual one. 11 p or> j > say S) ‘<if W c were to judge people purely by the physical characteristics the valuable personalities of our national life would in certain circumstances make rather a bad impression, as their high racial qualities appear more obviously in their deeds than in their outward appearance.” Germans tell what Sustains them A talk with ten young German officers who were recently taken prisoner in Italy revealed much c about their inexperience. Seven of the ten said they were National Socialists; 2 made certain reservations; and the last one said he had reached a certain stage in his conversion from National Socialism. First of all, said the observer, "I had to listen to all they had learned in the Hitler Youth, and at the officers’ schools: ‘Hitler, the greatest German of all time; the leader to happiness and wealth; the saviour in times of danger, and so on.” He asked them: ‘‘But why is it that you have had nothing but defeats for a year?” They were ready with excuses. ‘‘The wicked Italians had given everything away; the ‘National Germans’ in the Army, on whom the officers couldn’t rely; the absence of the Luftwaffe, needed in the East; the war weariness of the troops; the short training,” and much more on those lines. ‘‘Yes, I sec,” the observer answered, ‘‘but how are you going to win the war in that way?” He had touched the weak spot. ‘‘l don’t know,” one of the ten answered: ‘‘l don’t know anything about our reserves. It is no longer a question of complete victory. After all, wc arc only fighting for a compromise peace with England.” A twenty-throe year old company leader, who had been on the Channel coast for two years said: ‘‘lf the English succeed in landing in France, wc are lost. But fate can’t # do that to us. A twenty-one year old lieutenant from Pomerania, with a desperate look in his eyes, interjected: “We simply mustn’t lose. God in Heaven can’t refuse us victory after all the sacrifices we have made. ’ ’ It was always the same kind of argument. Another expressed his faith as follows: “The more hopeless it becomes, the more we believe in the miracle which will save us. That alone keeps me going. ’ ’ And the observer’s comment was* “That is it—the belief in a miracle It is the last argument of the fanatics who haven’t the courage to face the truth, because this truth means the end of all their illusions.” Milk -without Hun. Tailpiece to a BBC broadcast —taken from the Dutch underground press: A Nazi was praising the New Order: “You have only to look round —no more strikes, order everywhere, even the young men are no longer rude to f the police. What a change from the f bad old days of democracy.” “Maybe, came a voice from the audience, “but in the bad old days, when the door-•-.-bell rang at seven a.m., you could bo sure it was only the milkman.” ToM in a BBC Studio. On a recent raid on Berlin, a Lancaster with one engine dead got temporarily out of control during an air fight. It rolled over on it’s back, but the gunners kept firing while upside down.

At this stage, ihe mid-upper gunner called over the inter-communication system: "There's something* wrong with this kite." SHORTS FROM THE TAI4TS Extracts from talks and commentaries in the BBC overseas short wave transmissions:—■ The Smith, a Handy Girl is She: "Ours is quite an up-to-date smithy, and we have a lot of mechanical appliances to help us wit'i heavy jobs. For instance, in the old days a girl could never have managed the heavy hammering; but now we have a big mechanical hammer that I can work quite easily with my foot. And then the actual shoeing—when my Dad served his time he had to hold the horses' hoof between his knees, but now we have a little three-legged iron stand that takes the weight of the hoof, so with that to help me I can shoe as well as anybody."— Audrey Samuelson. London ' s " Under '' -World. "I watched 'em clearing up the debris after the other night. But I think what got me most is the old people and women and children sleeping in the subway. I feel sorry for them. We in Africa don't know honlucky we are. I shouldn't like to see my nine months' old daughter sleeping in a subway."—An American. Mutual Dissatisfaction. "The English have a curious way of hitting on some sort of compromise which satisfies neither party—and yet which works."—A Dorset farmer.