WORD OF WARNING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24607, 15 May 1941, Page 7

WORD OF WARNING

j" THE PENITENT SINNER" ANTI-NAZI PRESS COMMENT SENTIMENTALITY DEPRECATED (Rec. 9 p.m.) RUGBY, May 13. Mr Churchill, according to Die Zeitung, the German anti-Nazi newspaper published in London, summed up the ■ situation resulting from the Hess flight jin an eminently “ Churchillian ” phrase: “The maggot is in the apple." The newspaper summarises possible reasons for the flight as follows:—“He may have got on one of Himmler’s black lists and had an inkling of it. He may have had serious political differences with his colleagues. He may, sooner than the less initiated, have obtained inside information about the real situation in Germany and thereupon acted as many of the lesser criminals will act when zero hour is approached—try to get himself out of trouble and play the penitent sinner Finally, this most loyal of the loyal, as he was styled till yesterday, has perhaps been sent only to simulate treason and really make a last attempt at creating confusion among the onetime friends of the Nazis in England. ■lf this is the case one may rest assured it will be foiled by the vigilance of the British Government.” . One warning is given by Die Zeitung; “ Hess has—leaving Roehm aside—been Hitler’s first and closest associate; joint founder of the Storm Troops; joint author - of Mein Kampf; and one of those mainly responsible for the slaughter of June 30, 1934. When this man plays the unoffending husband and father, nobody should become his dupe. This flight is a ground for grim satisfaction and not for soft-hearted pardon." The Die Zeitung continues: “We must earnestly warn against the easy sentimentality of some British people, tending to convey the impression that Hess is ‘not so bad.’ Do not make a mistake: he is as bad as the worst of them. His hands are stained with the blood of thousands of innocent people, and his fanaticism and ruthlessness match those of Himmler and Streicher. If there is anything by which he has distinguished himself among his fellow criminals it is the impudence which always made him specially suited to deny atrocities with an air of offended honesty. He did ibis from the tortures of concentration camps to the war preparations against Czechoslovakia. Germany has suffered a devastating defeat on the moral and political battlefield, and it may be decisive if the propaganda strategists know how to use it.” The news of Hess's flight was given great prominence in the newspapers in Spain, both the British and German accounts being printed fully. REFUGEE'S OPINION ARMY CHIEFS RESTIVE PLOT TO OVERTHROW NAZIS HESS’S LIFE ENDANGERED (Rec. 2 a.m.) MONTREAL, May 13. Otto Strasser, founder of the Nazi Party, who is now a refugee in Canada, expressed the belief in a special interview that the escape of Hess incli'cates that German Army chiefs and Goering seek to overthrow the Nazi party, and within one hour of Goering's accession to power Goebbels and Himmler would be shot dead. Hess also knew that his life was not worth a moment's purchase in Germany, consequently he fled. Goering was closer to the Prussian Army and the great industrialists than anyone. Hess, on the other hand, had always been Hitler’s closest and most trusted friend.

The party leader, Strasser, who fled from Germany after the break with Hitler in 1931, declared that there was intense jealousy between Goering, Hitler, Hess, Goebbels, and Himmler. Strasser suggested a four-point plan for' defeating Germany: First, antiHilter propaganda among German prisoners of war; secondly, organised propaganda directed to German nationals in the United States and South America; thirdly, the creation of an independent free German legion modelled on General de Gaulle’s Free French plan; and, fourthly, the creation of an authoritative German national council of leaders in exile, including Bruening, Previramus, Rauschmann, Thomas Mann (the author), Solimann, Holtermann, and himself.

Strasser feels certain that Hitler will attempt .an invasion of England, even if it means the destruction of the German Army and the signing of his own death warrant.