GERMAN NAVY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 39, 16 February 1939, Page 7

GERMAN NAVY

FIRST BIG BATTLESHIP LAUNCHED BY HITLER TRIBUTE TO PRINCE BISMARCK [By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright] HAMBURG, Feb. 14. Herr Hitler, in a speech on the occasion of his launching of the first 35,000-ton battleship Bismarck, at which 50,000 people were present, declared that the Anglo-German Naval Treaty enabled Germany to build a fleet commensurate with her army, “and now,” he said, “we are face to face with the first giant of a new squadron of 35,000-ton battleships.” Herr Hitler paid a tribute to Prince Bismarck, as the foremost builder of the Reich, and added that Bismarck was compelled three times to resort to the sword to solve problems which could not be solved by a majority decision. He laid the true foundation of the National Socialistic State, in the face of opposition by Socialists, Democrats, the Catholip Church, the egotism of petty dynasties and small rulers, and intrigues by ambitious women. He added that Bismarck’s achievements were ill rewarded, but Provdence thereafter had been more just.