"FED UP"

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23966, 16 May 1941, Page 9

"FED UP"

LIFE IN GERMANY PEOPLE SUFFERING BBITISH AIE BAIDS MOTIVE FOR FLIGHT Py Telwaph- Press Association—Copyright (Ken! I p.in ) LONDON, May 15 The title of interest in the motives of Hess received new impetus last night when it was reported that he had told the people at the farm where he landed of the hardships now being experienced in Germany, and also of the great distress and suffering prevailing among the German people as the result of the jßovnl Air Force raids against towns.

Hps- added that he had made the ])uke o! Hamilton's estate his objective becau-e he had valuable information to give the Duke, whom he know before the war. This information would be of great use to Britain in overthrowing the tyranny now prevailing in the Reich. Hess declared he was fed up with the war and with life in Germany. Headed For Ducal Estates Hess also said he had made the most painstaking preparations for the flight from Germany, and this statement is borne .out. /by his maps, on which all of the Duke's estates are ringed in blue pencil. ; Hess actually landed lo miles from Dtifignvel, and had lie reached the Puke's mansion, he would have found that the Duke was absent, for he is now serving in the Royal Air Force with the rank of air commodore. Dungavel is used as a military convalescent hospital, and the Duke rarely visits there.

A British Broadcasting Corporation official said Hess was both talking and writing freely. The military hospital where Hess is a patient is closely guarded by police and by troops. It is expected that Hess will leave for another destination in a few clays. f

The I)uke of Hamilton, it is stated, ■will submit a report to the authorities upon his meeting with Hess in hospital yesterday. Mr. Churchill's Statement The Foreign Office expert, Colonel I A. Kirkpatrick, has sent further reports of his conversations with Hess to where they are being ftudied by 'Ministers. So far there is no official indication that Hess has made any sensational statements to British officials, although the Daily Mail says that acting, as he seems to have done, without Hitler's permission, Hess has undoubtedly revealed to the British Government the present state of affairs in Germany and in the Nazi Party. - Mr. Churchill is expected to be in a position to make an early announcement in the House of Commons showing what importance may be attached to any of Hess' statements. Feeling at Westminster The Press Association's lobbyist says there is a /great deal of objection at Westminster to the suggestion It hat Mr. Churchill should interview Hess, and that such a meeting seems unlikely. It is argued that it would hardly he fitting to honour thus an unconventional visitor who has for long played his full part in supporting all the reprehensible institutions—the Gestapo, the concentration camps and the persecution of Jews —of a country now warring against Britain, The remains of Hess' aeroplane will be exhibited in London during War Weapons Week, beginning on Saturday. Not a Komantic Figure Sir Patrick Dollan, Lord Pro\*ost of Glasgow, said too much sentiment should not be displayed over the arrival of the dep'uty-Fuehrer. The British people should not forget that 14 countries had been overrun and crucified, largely as the result of Hess' plotting. He had come to Britain, not for love of us, but for love of his own skin. Public opinion in Britain does not regard Hess as a romantic figure. He is regarded a prisoner of war, who must bear of the responsibility for the horrdrs and destruction the Germans have brought upon the world.

"MANY ENVIOUS" DOUBTERS IN GERMANY COMMENT BY THE TIMES (Reed. 7.t0 p.m.) LONDON, May 14 The Times, in a leading article, quoted by the British official wireless service, sa/s that out of tho group which surrounded Hitler, Hess is perhaps the only one whose loyalty to Hitler was unalloyed by suspicion of self-seeking, and into whose relations with the Fuehrer the element of personal devotion appeared to enter. "But the precedent of June 130, 1934, showed that no friend, however intimate, would be spared once he had been frank enough to criticise or oppose the supreme will," says the Times. "The assassination of Roehm and the gratuitous thoroughness with which his memory was besmirched left a lasting scar even oiy tho by no means delicate susceptibilities of the Nazi leaders, and such a blow to personal confidence is hardly retrievable. It has taught a lesson from which Hess —one, no doubt, among many —appears to have profited. "A rift' on the surface does not imply that rottenness has yet spread through the whole structure, but questionings will not bo so easily silenced in the ranks of the party, and still less easily in the country as a whole. While Hess acted alone, there must be many people in Germany who will envy his exploit and who will draw from it confirmation of their doubts about tho issue of the campaign of brutal conquest and domination upon winch Hitler's ambition has launched tho German nation.

"it would be wholly misguided to suppose thai his flight opens up tho prospect of any easy break in tho cohesion of the German political machine -rstill less of any slackening of Goinian military efficiency. When the history of tho war is \yritten. this event will bo marked as the first symptom of cohesion sapped and confidence mortallr shaken."