HESS EPISODE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXI, Issue 141, 16 May 1941, Page 6

HESS EPISODE

PERPLEXITY GROWS

Bit ITISH PROPAGANDA

(United Press Association—Copyright (Rec. 9.50 a.m.) ZURICH, May 15

Berlin officials told foreign newspapermen that the Luftwaffe is preparing for the biggest raid yet on London as proof that Hitler did not share the Hess idea about coming to peace terms with England. However, all the neutral correspondents report an ever increasing perplexity and bewilderment anion?: the German population over Hess's flight. This is accentuated by the many contra(lictorv explanations which have been circulated from Berlin. The allegation that Hess might have been given drugs to make him talk is taken as an indication that the Wilhelmstrawc knows that Hess is normal, although other Berlin authorities stick to the story that he is mentally unbalanced. A British' Official Wireless message states that the 8.'8.C. has been broadcasting at frequent intervals _to German v about Hess, in connection with whom Mr Winston Churchill stated in Ihe House of Commons: "I shall take the first opportunity of giving authentic news regarding Hess and the Duke nf Hamilton, but ill selection of that opportunity I will be guided by the public interest." In one broadcast to-day a speaker faid: "I want to discuss what Dr Goehhels would like you to think about the Hess incident. Five days alter Hess left Augsburg Goebbels released his version. His experts had taken their time in dealing with the letters Hess left behind. I wonder if you would find it as difficult as I do to believe that he flew to England out of mad sympathy for the British people? "We agree with German propagandists that Hess wants peace for the German people: we agree he possesses secret information, but is it not possible that his concern is for the German and not for the English people? Is is not possible that his secret information i.s about such matters as the Balkan campaign sasualties, the state of Kiel and Hamburg and the fate of I'rien, Kretschner, and Schepke (lost U-boat aces) and their un-named colleagues? May he not know more about America than some of his colleagues, who have never been abroad ? I leave it to you to decide whether it was a very sane concern for the German people or a very mad sympathy lor England that drove him to take this step. "Perhaps, after all, we have found out why Dr Goebbels is so anxious to prove his comrade mad. Hess must know a lot about the Doctor and his other colleagues. It was his job to do so. And now he is sitting, talking freely and writing. It wfll be very dangerous for Goebbels and his colleagues if Hess is sane after all."

HESS NEARLY SHOT DOWN. (Rec. 1.30 p.m.) LONDON. May 15. Hess was lucky not to have been shot down by two Hurricane pilots when flying over Scotland on Saturday night, says the Daily Express. One pilot is a" young New Zealander with 17 victories to his credit, and the other a Squadron-Leader from Ireland, who lias shot down 14 German planes. Th'ey spotted Hess's plane off the Scottish coast and reported it to their headquarters. Hess's life was saved' because the authorities disbelieved the pilot's report and decided that a German fighter plane could never be risked on a flight so far from its base.