FRIEND OF HITLER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23705, 12 January 1939, Page 18

FRIEND OF HITLER

■ ■"«» MR WARD PRICE'S PORTRAIT DICTATOR'S VIRTUES LISTED Mr G. Ward Price, British war correspondent, who is Adolf Hitler's friend and supporter, and has travelled, • lunched, dined, and visited with him. off and on for years, is now England's most authentic news source as to what Der Fuhrer plans to do next, Lord Rothermere's paper, the London. Daily Mail,, which employs Mr Price, is (writes Lemuel Parton in the San. Francisco Chronicle) scooping the ears off the other London sheets as Hen. Hitler bares his soUl to Mr Price. Mr Price previously has related how. h«i and Lord Rothermere were two oi four guests at Herr Hitler's first formal dinner party after he seized power. That was December 19, 1934. It was about this time that Lord Rothermere, reaching 80 per cent, of the British reading public through his newspapers and press affiliations, began his ceasing campaign for Fascism .in England. A third guest at the dinner was E. W. D. Tennant, of the ArtgloGerman fellowship, a fellowship which ' Lord Rothermere and Mr Price have diligently fostered. • / .-.:. Mr Price, educated at Cambridge University, is a seasoned and richlygarlanded British war correspondent. As foreign correspondent of the Daily Mail he was with the Turkish Army in the first Balkan war; he was an official correspondent at the Dardanelles; he was with the British Army at Salonika;, and. in the peace years, frequently was the official correspondent chosen to accompany the Prince of Wales on his African tours. Reporter for Empire

He has long been a quasi-official reporter for the British Empire. He writes concisely, clearly, and expertly, with a keen alertness for revealing little human, touches and with little concern for the dry imponderables 01 political or economic theory. His book. " I Know These Dictators, published in this country a year ago, was, in the view of this writer, big news, and should have stirred up a ft} of excitement. Principally about Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini,, it builds out of intimately observed minutiae of their minds and persons a synthesis of virtue, charm, and heroism which shatters all the cruelly distorted portraits of these men drawn by other less well-informed correspondents. Mr Price, in this book, reports that Adolf Hitler is genteel, humorous, courageous, chivalrous, abstemious,, profoundly intellectual, kindly, forgiving unselfish, tender, a clever storyteller, and loves dogs and children. In the manner of a, good reporter, he doesn't merely sling adjectives. He supports each commendable attribute by indisputable proof. For instance, revealing facts as to the main category of Der Fuhrer's virtues are set down thus:— The List Prepared

. Humour.—Mr Hitler has a fat butler. When the guests have assembled at dinner, he says: "Kannenberg, tell us how many chins you have." Chivalry.—" He holds a ladys hand as if it were some precious object, while his blue, searching eyes smile into hers, and he bends forward in an elegant bow to take it to his lips. Courage.—Once, at an evening party, somebody dropped a torpedo, like our Fourth of July torpedoes. "Hitler showed no alarm, but only la vStv._''He has the , big-ball thumb, which palmists associate with strength of will." Also. " the lobes of his ears are large, an indication regarded by physiognomists as a sign of Vl Forgi'ving Nature.—Once, when he was a boy, a man called him a " village lout." After he gained power. Mr Hitler remembered this, but told Mr Price he would not retaliate. Friendly Nature—"He is fond of children and dogs, a trait regarded by many as evidence of good nature. Abstinence.—He drinks only mineral water with a dash of camomile in it. It is also revealed that Mr Hitler wears well-cut shirts, that he has a "soldierly figure," that he used to pert his hair in the middle, that he eats nudelsuppe with • dumplings in it. that he has the "simplicity of genius, that he is not a woman hater, and.that he hears voices. He told Mr Price that once, in the war. a v.ice said clearly " Get out of here!" He did, and a shell killed the other 15 men.