Manawatu Evening Standard. SATURDAY, MAY 17, 1941. THE HESS SENSATION.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXI, Issue 142, 17 May 1941, Page 6

Manawatu Evening Standard. SATURDAY, MAY 17, 1941. THE HESS SENSATION.

The mystery of the Hess flight from Munich to Scotland has deepened with the publication of further details of its alleged motive. The public’s chief desire is to know definitely whether Hess deliberately contrived to escape from Germany to Britain because of his life being in danger. or whether he is the leading figure in a drama conceived by the Nazi hierarchy for its own purpose. The German language newspaper issued in London has been prompt in giving a warning not to regard Hess as a hero, or as a Nazi who is “not really "so bad.” His record in his fold justifies that warning, and in a carefully reasoned article this paper concludes that Hess may have been placed on the Nazi black list, may have tried to get away from the scene of an impending disaster, or have been sent to England to play a carefully planned role lor Hitler. Un the'other hand, the evidence for the time being is that Hess deliberately, and certainly with the aid of people in high places, escaped from the scene of many Nazi triumphs. That his flight was a severe blow to the Nazi hierarchy is emphasised by lin’s announcement when he was found to be missing—Hess was iusane, suffering from delusions and'had been ordered by Hitler not to fly. But his safe descent in Scotland has caused the Nazis to modify this version more than once, and now we have the statement from Berlin that he was planning a meeting with theDuke of Hamilton, formerly the Marquess of Clydesdale, whom he knew from the latter’s visit to the Olympic Games in Berlin some years ago, with the object of “preparing the ground for a British-German understanding.” It is at this point that the mystery deepens. Lord Hamilton earlier received a letter from Hess which ho did not answer but instead placed in the hands of the correct authorities. That was 'the perfectly logical thing to do. Hess could hardly have expected a reply, and it seems inconceivable that he would make an adventurous flight into the enemy’s hands just to prepare the giound lor the better British-German understanding lie planned. There is something out of joint here, and the clue to the affair must lie in the real conditions that exist to-day in Germany. The letters he would leave, as he was deserting friends to whom he had been so staunch, would naturally be written to save him had he been betrayed before he could get safely away. It maj r well be that the affair had been planned for some time ahead and the first letter to the Duke of Hamilton was designed to provide a reason for his sudden disappearance when it took place. At the moment the evidence points to Hess leaving Germany for very sound personal reasons.. He has seen the futility of Hitler’s war, the stark defont that stares Germany in the face, and that the end of the

Nazi regime is drawing closer each day, when it will go down in the whirlwind of its own creation. But, and this fact will be remembered in Britain, Hess has been a typical Nazi, a leader among those who have done the foulest things in Germany and forced the cruellest war upon the world in which a great Continent lias been placed in bondage. There can be no sentiment for him, but Britain can and freely will use the incident as a destructive weapon against the Nazis to hasten their doom.