READY WITH REPRISALS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23965, 15 May 1941, Page 9

READY WITH REPRISALS

POSSIBLE BRITISH PROPAGANDA HITLER AND PARTY CHIEFS REFUGEE PAPER DECRIES SENTIMENT By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright LONDON. May 14 The Nazis have threatened that Frau Hess and her child will be treated "according to the use which the British may make of Hess for propaganda purposes," says the Daily Mail. It is officially denied in Berlin that Frau Hess has arrived in Ankara. Hitler held a meeting of all the Reich leaders and gauleiters. Goering was present at the meeting. After listening to Hitler they accorded him "an overwhelming demonstration of their determination to go on to victory." German officials declared: "We will not recognise any

statements Hess may make in England. We know the British rulers will make every crude misuse of this situation, and who knows by what ugly means some sort of confession may be extracted from him. We cannot even be certain that he has even made any of the statements which may be attributed to him." Hitler said that no formal steps have yet been taken to dismiss Hess from the Nazi Party, but he added, "obviously such a man is unworthy to be a party member." No Attempt to Make Hess Talk It is announced in London that Hess has been moved from the hc.Bpital in Glasgow to an unspecified destination-. It is, however, understood that he has been trken to a quiet spot in the country, where the tranquillity of the surroundings may put him in a mood to speak more fully. The British Government, it was emphasised, would not attempt to force Fless to talk. He would be treated as an honourable prisoner of war. Mr. Churchill, according to Die Zeitung, the German newspaper published by refugees in London, summed up the situation resulting from Hess* flight in an eminently Churchillian phrase: "The maggot is in the apple." The newspaper summarises the possible reasons for Hess' sudden exit thus: "He may have got on one of Himmler s black lists and have had an inkling of it. Fie may have had serious political differences with his colleagues, or he may, sooner than the less initiated, have obtained inside information about the real situation in Germany and on that account acted as many of the lesser criminals will, act when zero hour draws near —tried to get himself out of trouble by playing the penitent sinner. "Finally, this most loyal of the loyal, as he was styled until yesterday, has perhaps been sent only to stimulate treason and, in reality, is making a last attempt to create confusion among the one-time friends of the Nazi regime in England. If this last is the case," the paper comments, "one may rest assured it will be foiled by the vigilance of the British Government." Hess "As Bad as the Worst of Them" Die Zeitung in a leader earnestly warns its readers against the easy sentimentality to which some of the British public are tending. This attitude conveys the impression that Hess "is not bo bad." The paper insists that this mistake should not be made, for he is as bad as the worst of them. He has—leaving Roehm as jde—been Hitler's first and closest associate; he was the joint founder of the Storm Troopers; the joint producer of their terror inside Germany, the joint author of that bible of destructive nihilism —"Mein Kampf"; he was also one of those few chiefly responsible for the slaughter on June 30, 1934. "His hands are stained with the blood of thousands of innocent people," Die Zeitung continues. "His fanaticism and ruthlessness match that of Himmler and Streicher.' If there is anything by which he has distinguished himself among his fellow criminals, it is the impudence which has always made him specially suited to deny atrocities with an air of offended honesty. He did this from the tortures in the concentration camps to the preparations for war against Czechoslovakia. "His flight is ground for grim satisfaction, not soft-hearted pardon, and nobody should be deceived by his playing a role of unoffending husband and father. Germany has suffered a devastating defeat, moral, political and on the battlefield, and it may prove decisive if the propaganda strategists know how to follow it up."