PEACE RUMOURS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 December 1943, Page 3

PEACE RUMOURS

STREAM THROUGH NEUTRAL CAPITALS CAMPAIGN IN UNITED STATES. DENUNCIATION OF ALLIED ’ ' DEMAND. NEW YORK, December 19. The London correspondent of the “New York Times” says that the recent Allied victories resulted in a stream of peace rumours through neutral capitals, and the opinion is expressed that the rumours as well as peace feelers from which they spring are a visible result of unrest among Germany’s army leaders and big industrialists. The Nazis are believed to be using the peace feelers to test the reaction of the Allies in preparation for the inevitable day when Germany is so badly whipped that £he will have . to be “betrayed” in order to continue to exist.

The first organised campaign for a peace since Pearl Harbour has been launched in the United States with letters to all Congressmen signed by Mr George Hartman, chairman of the “Peace Now Movement,” and lecturer at Harvard University. The campaign denounces the “cannibalistic slogan of unconditional surrender” and demands a negotiated peace which would save Germany and Japan from an Allied invasion. Congressmen almost unanimously described the movement as misguided and playing into the enemy’s hands.

Rioting occurred in Helsinki early this week, started by Finnish soldiers on leave who did not wish to return to the front, says the “New York Times” correspondent in Stockholm. According to private reports, bands of shouting soldiers paraded the city streets accosting pedestrains, smashing shop windows and clashing with city and military police. Revolvers and knives were used and several persons were injured. “There is no foundation for a report that Bulgaria has submitted peace proposals through the Russian Government, offering to withdraw from the war on condition that she is allowed to take Macedonia and western Croatia,” says Moscow radio.