NEW LINE TAKEN BY RIBBENTROP

Southland Times, Issue 24861, 29 September 1942, Page 5

NEW LINE TAKEN BY RIBBENTROP

STALINGRAD REGARDED AS IMPORTANT (Rec. 7 pan.) LONDON, Sept. 27. “We are confident of winning the battle for Stalingrad,” said the German Foreign Minister, Herr Joachim von Ribbentrop, in a speech on the second anniversary of the signing of the ThreePower Pact. “When we take Stalingrad our most dangerous antagonist will suffer a blow from which he will never recover. We are ready for more Dieppes. A second front attempt will no longer be able to check Russia s increasing paralysis.” Von Ribbentrop predicted greater efforts to prevent British and American supplies from reaching Russia. . Twothirds of Russia’s supplies of grain and meat, the whole of its sugar and 60 per cent, of its coal has been seized, he said. “Russia has lost 90,000,000 inhabitants through our territorial gains. Her losses in dead, wounded and prisoners total about 14,000,000. Russia is nearing exhaustion in man-power, food and raw materials. By the conquest of the Ukraine and the Kuban, the food situation for the whole of Europe has been secured for the future. All Europe is one armament factory working for us. Against the 190,000,000 people of England and America from which they draw skilled workers—plus the remainder of the decimated Russian workers—the Axis has 450,000,000 at its disposal. BRITISH AIR ATTACKS "The future will show whether Churchill’s bomb warfare against the civilian population was a good or bad idea. Every single bomb, every home destroyed and every dead person makes the Germans more determined to make the British pay. The time will come when we will deal . finally with ( this ‘British aircraft-carrier off Europe. “The Tri-partite Pact was concluded first as a warning to the United States. As Roosevelt and his Jewish war-mon-gering clique continue to drive the Americans against their will to war, it is necessary that they know with whom they have to deal. The Axis is in every respect now master of the situation. The Russian war has not exhausted the Axis. On the contrary it has hardened it and made it secure everywhere. We shall continue striking against Russia until all danger threatening Europe from Bolshevism is abolished. In the Mediterranean and North Attica we shall give the British no rest. In Western Europe large armies stand ready to nip in the bud all landing attempts. Time is now definitely working for the Tri-partite Powers. “HARD BATTLES AHEAD”

“Germany, Italy and Japan stand united,” said von Ribbentrop. “Despite our tremendous victories the enemy is still contesting our gains. Hard battles lie ahead, but the three Powers will continue to defeat the enemy wherever Von Ribbentrop took a markedly different line from the official German broadcasts in his reference to Stalingrad. He emphasized the strategic value of the city and said that, its capture would be a blow from which Russia would never recover. Official German propaganda, on the other hand, Lag lately been directed to .belittling the importance of Stalingrad itself. The Washington correspondent of The New York Times says that propaganda experts deduce from recent German broadcasts that Dr Josef Goebbels, the Nazi Minister of Propaganda, is losing his grip on Nazi propaganda, which is becoming increasingly defensive with fewer boasts and more warnings of impending perils. Goebbels is imitating Mr Churchills “blood, sweat and tears” manner and is telling the Germans about the rough times ahead. It is also significant that references to Russia in the German broadcasts of the past fortnight have dropped from 22 per cent, of the whole to 11 per cent. They have included remarks such as “The Russians habitually do the tactically unexpected” and an explanation that Stalingrad may not be taken because Hitler dislikes killing men.

BRITAIN THREATENED

U-Boats And Aeroplanes (Rec. 7 p.m.) LONDON, Sept. 27.. “A general settlement with Britain is at hand,” declared the German military spokesman, quoted by . the Stockholm correspondent of The Times. “This has become possible by the co-ordination of the submarine blockade with a large-scale air effort from Europe,” he added. “Britain will not be in a position to impede the war s development. Germany’s war against Russia has merely postponed the decisive battle against Britain, but Germany continues to consider, fighting against Britain as the main object of the war. _