SIDE-LIGHTS ON DEPUTY HESS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 85, Issue 111, 14 May 1941, Page 5

SIDE-LIGHTS ON DEPUTY HESS

APPEARED TO HAVE NO ENEMIES FIRM, CAUTIOUS MAN Hess appears to have no enemies. Official Germany is honeycombed with intrigues, but he has steered clear of involving himself with any clique. Only once in his whole career did he make a slip. He was boosting the Four Year Plan when he referred jocularly to Goering as “this bull.” The Field-Marshal laughed, but it is not wise tc make such jokes in Nazi Germany. There are too many talebearers Hess h%s kept away from the industrially - supported Junkers. With the leadership of Germany as his goal, he refuses to sniff at red herrings. It is instructive to see Hess in his office known as the Wailing Wall of Germany, because it is the Mecca of place-seekers grafters and smooth yes-men. He sits at his desk, cool, dignified, almost clerical in his manner.

He has put on weight and is going slightly bald, but there is nothing flabby about his conduct of business. He attends to letters that threaten, cajole and plead. He has X-ray eyes for traps. The grafters leave hurriedly. Hess will not be bought. He has the tone and manner of a diplomat. With clipped phrases he stays on the fence. When pressed for a decision he becomes evasive. People Visioned Him as Leader “Who will succeed Hitler ” you ask a middle-class German. He looks hurriedly over his shoulder and drops his voice to a whisper. "Hess. I hope. but. . . That "but” is occupied by the bulky figures of Herman Goering. Prussian Minister President. Reich Cabinet Minister for Air Forces, etc., etc. He has a fine war record and is a family man. He is picturesque, shrewd and forceful. His popularity with the army is undoubted. Hess, on the other hand makes powerful appeal to Germans who still dream of a strong but more liberal regime. He tightened up discipline in the Nazi Party. His vision of an ideal State has pleased moderate Germans and many' others abroad. "A happy life, decent morals, happy youth and a clean world and philosophy.” But his cold personality may tell against him. His magnetism has possibly been dimmed by that of Hitler, but. so far, he seems to lack the sheer force of men like Goering. Goebbels L and Himmler. Those agate eyes, clear ■ and hard, may hypnotise a committee but not a country. Hess presides over meetings and congresses with quiet but firm justice. He is the born chairman, apart from a lack of humour. His only joke was made in a speech when he compared Germany’ to a

’hedgehog and her enemies as foxes, i “Peace has been declared,” said the fox. “Why go armed. Hand over your skin!” The hedgehog said: “First have your teeth drawn, then we can talk’ With that he rolled himself up, threw out his spikes and defiantly faced the world, armed but peaceful.” But the Nazi Deputy has one great failing: he seems to be muscle-bound with caution. Whenever the succession is mentioned in German diplo--1 matic circles you hear the whisper: ; “If the Fuehrer goes, Goering ! would shoot first, while Hess ran home to see if his permit to carry a i revolver was in order!” Dagger From the Duce That expresses an important truth. But one must remember that Hess may be a virile and energetic per- , sonality if from Hitler’s steel. ■ Molten metal hardens into coldest ■ steel.

1 Mussolini, a shrewd judge of events, I clearly thanks it worth while to court Rudolf Hess. With his eye on the future, the Duce once sent him “an honorary dagger” as a gift. This was soon followed by a signed photograph: “To my comrade. Rudolf Hess, with warm friendship.” Once you have seen Rudolf Hess his face remains sharply In your mind. There is a hard nobility about it. Seeing him for the first time you note the shaggv eyebrows, the dark •wavy hair receding from a high fore--head. and the stubborn, aggressive chin. The mouth is hard and thin as ! a needle, the eyes greenish. “I can stare Hitler out,” a German l told me. “but Hess frightens me. His eyes are too hard,, too piercing.” There is nothing aggressive in his i manner as he talks to you. He is i oolite, cool, and non-committal. His 1 English is perfect. Even when rei taxed his face is secretive. The smile is trimmed, the voice chilled to a dinlomatic temperature. • Mussolini was watching this qu>etsnoken youn" man. It is tempting, but 'rash, to pronhesy. But if Rudolf Hess should ever become Dictator the consequences may bo vital both to Ger- ; manv and the of Europe. When Hitler was nronaring th n blood bath of June 30. Hess wa« deputed to nrenare the ground. Five ■days before that black date Hess thundered a radio warning against the I Fuehrer’s enemies. “God have mercy on all those who itrv to damage Germany by secret i sabotage! Hitler is the greatest Strategist of the Revolution. Woe to him who snoils the Fuehrer’s great I plans in the hope of speedier re«uit«?l” The voice was Hess's; the inspiration came from hi* Leader. When Roehm. Ernst and th'* others had met sudden and brutal deaths Hess was again pushed before the microphone. Tt is often said that Hitler likes his deputy because the latter is not ambitious. That is only partly true. There are moments when Germany’s Boss becomes irritable and depressed. At such times Hess has a soothing effect unon the Fuehrer. His obvious admiration is a sedative his capacity for intelligent silence a relief after the party squabbles. It is restful to listen to his deputy’s I account of th n faith-healing hospital in Dresden which is his pet charity, j