War Not Expected

Manawatu Times, Volume 64, Issue 278, 24 November 1939, Page 8

War Not Expected

REMARK BY LEADING NAZI LONDON, Oct. 17. The fact that even people in high places in Germany did not think that war was so close was disclosed by Mr. G. B. Ward, of Wellington, in an interview with the Daily Express. Mr. Ward took part in a golf championship in Germany in August. ,"Herr Henkel, Ribbeutrop’s father-in-law, who is president of the German Golf Federation, entertained the English people,” said Mr. Ward. "One evening we were taken to Marksburg. on the Rhine, to see the castle where the Kaiser once lived. As we approached the gates four cannons were fired in our honour. The gates were then swung open. At the dinner after the championship, Henkel invited me to go back again next year. When I said, laughingly, that I might be back before that, he replied: ‘Don’t worry, there ‘will be no war.’ That was on the Friday ovening. The following Monday the Russian-German pact was announced.” Mr. Ward is hoping to get a temporary commission in the Royal Air Force. Meanwhile, he is engaged in one of the auxiliary services in Kensington as an ambulance driver.