CRISIS IN REICH

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 25053, 17 November 1944, Page 5

CRISIS IN REICH

WOMAN LEADER'S PLEA HITLER REGIME SHAKY GESTAPO HANGINGS (Reed. 7.30 p.m.) LONDON, Nov. 16 "It is clear internally and externally that we have entered a decisive phase of the war at a time when treachery, disappointment and perfidy are raising their heads," said Frau Scholtz-Klink, Reich women's leader, at a mass meeting of Nazi Party women, according to the Berlin .radio. Reuter's correspondent says the speech amounts to an admission that all is not well in Hitler's regime. Frau Scholtz-Klink continued: "We who have marched with Hitler must multiply our support, love and loyalty. We must follow him blindly, for his is the only right and true road. Real faith never argues, but fights, and dies if necessary." Frau Scholtz-Klink has been described as a perfect German woman. Executions in Cologne The Gestapo in Cologne on* Tuesday publicly hanged 21 persons, as part of a move to avert what appears to be a big crisis inside Germany, says the British United Press correspondent in Zurich, Switzerland.

There is now a "blind spot," which is a circle some 130 miles in circumference, in the heart of Germany, in the area of Halle, Merseburg, Weissenfels, Naumburg and Bitterfeld, which has been isolated for three days from all railway traffic. Railways inside the circle have been closed down over their whole length. There are about 100,000 foreign workers inside the circle. What is happening there is not known, but in wellinformed quarters in Zurich it is believed that the isolation of the area is attributable to a serious crisis. Tension in Rhine Valley Travellers arriving in Basle state that a dangerous tension exists over the entire Rhine Valley. Workers are refusing to carry on during raids. They flee from the factories as soon as the sirens sound. Transport in the area is chaotic and coal deliveries from the Ruhr have almost ceased, with the result that entire industries are at a standstill for weeks. The inhabitants of Cologne are living like cavemen amid the ruins of the town, where there is no gas and no electricity. Many of them nave openly declared themselves against the continuation of the war.