NAZI VERSION

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXI, Issue 138, 13 May 1941, Page 5

NAZI VERSION

MIND UNSOUND. FORBIDDEN TO ,FLY. LONDON, "May 12. The German radio station Deutschlandzender earlier reported an official Nazi Party statement to the effect that Rudolph Hess, Hitler’s deputy in the. party, had presumably crashed in an acrgplane flight while mentally unsound. The statement added that,Hess took off on Saturday evening and had not returned. He had been expressly forbidden by Hitler to fly a plane because of his mental condition. A letter which Hess left behind shows the mental confusion which, the party says, justified Hitler in the belief that Hess was suffering from a mental disease. '

Hess’s adjutant has been arrested in connection with the order forbidding his superior to fly.

DISCIPLE OF HITLER.' Hess, who was born of German parents in Alexandria, Egypt, in 1890, was styled --Deputy oi the Leader” in the Nazi Party. He served in the Great War with distinction and was one of Hitler's early disciples, being imprisoned with him in a fortress after the unsuccessful 1923 push. He was famous for his devotion to Hitler, who made him his deputy at the party meetings as a reward. On the outbreak of the present war he was named by Hitler after Goering in the line of succession to the Fuehrer.

A biographer wrdte of Hess some years ago: Hess himself is regarded as absolutely incorruptible. He has not enriched himself and ho does not long for wealth or the amenities ol life as other leaders do. While luxury grew among most of the powerful, Hess effaced himself more and more. Ho is taciturn, frightening officials by listening to their reports for hours without showing the least emotion and then bidding them farewell. In build lie is slim, with an athletic body, and dark. He has an unusually large head, and his nickname in the party is “the Mulatto,” or “the Egyptian.”