‘MESSIANIC IDEALIST’

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 17 May 1941, Page 6

‘MESSIANIC IDEALIST’

NAZI PICTURE OF HESS HARDLY SQUARES WITH TRUTH NEWSPAPER COMMENT I British Official Wireless] (Rec.. 1.10 p.m.) Rugby, May 16. , Although interest in Herr Hess is ] no*, being allowed to obscure the wider issues of war, speculation is still rife regarding the motives for his escape from Germany and their meaning. The contradictory contortion.: of Dr Goebbels’ propaganda machine explain the astounding event in manner palatable to the Nazis. The fact that it was revealed to-day that a letter , from Herr Hess, which the Duke of Hamilton, immediately handeu to the Authorities, contained a suggestion for a meeting on neutral territory to dis- ; cuss peace certainly lends colour to the latest Nazi picture of Herr Hess as j a messianic idealist, but it is no reflection whatever on the sanity of a ; man who may have thought a nego- ; tiated peace the only possible hope for Germany in the dangerous situation to!, which her war adventure is leading |. her. j; At the same time the picture of Herr , Hess as an idealist is the latest figment!, of the overworked imagination of the ' ■ German propagandists and hardly j • squares the truth as stated by the j, i “Daily Telegraph.” “Herr Hess more ' than any other man but Hitler, is re-I sponsible for the abominations of the ! concentration camps and the Gestapo. j He lived and throve and made himself important by murder, torture and per- ' secution. Such is Herr Hess’s religion.' j The “Telegraph” adds a timely warning i “though one chief of the Nazi gangsters ; has deserted, that does not diminish by j one jot the urgency of the development!. of our utmost fighting power now. We ! : must not be deflected or deterred from j : the toll and sacrifice of our task by the « fantastic melodrama of Herr Hess.” 1