Hess Learned His Lesson From 1934 Purge

Manawatu Times, Volume 66, Issue 115, 16 May 1941, Page 7

Hess Learned His Lesson From 1934 Purge

COHESION SAPPED AND CONFIDENCE SHAKEN Received Thursday, 10.30 p.m. RLGBY, May 14. The Times, in a leading article, says that out of the group which surrounded Hitler Hess is perhaps the only one whose loyalty to Hitler was unalloyed by a suspicion of selfseekiug and into whose relations with the Fuhrer the element of personal devotion appeared to enter. ‘‘But the precedent of June 30, 1934, showed that no friend however intimate would be spared once he had ; been frank enough to criticise or oppose the supreme will. The assassin-1 otion of Koehm and the gratuous | thoroughness with which his memory was besmirched left a lasting scar even on the by no means delicate •usceptibilities of the Nazi leaders. Such a blow to personal confidence was hardly retrievable and it taught a leson from which Hess —one no doubt among many—appears to have profited. The rift on the surface does not imply that the rottenness has yet spread through the whole structure, but questionings will not be so easily silenced in the ranks of the party and still less easily in the country as a whole. * 1 While Hess acted alone there must be many people in Germany who will envy hia exploit and who will draw from it confirmation of their doubts shout the issue of the campaign on ! brutal conquest and domination on | which Hitler's ambition has launched j the German nation. It would be | wholly misguided to suppose that his ,' flight opens up the prospect of any easy j break in the cohesion of the German political machine—still less of any slackening of German military efficiency. “ When the history of the war is written this event will be marked os ♦bp first sympton of cohesion sapped I •nd confidence mortally shaken.’ 9 J