The Wanganui Chronicle. TUESDAY, MAY 19,1942. INSIDE GERMANY.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 86, Issue 115, 19 May 1942, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. TUESDAY, MAY 19,1942. INSIDE GERMANY.

IT is not only from returning diplomats that evidence, is to be had of the existence of doubts that assail the minds of the people of Germany: direct evidence is provided by the German Press. As far back as August 28 the Frankfurter Zeitiuig declared: “If we succeed in the East vve will be faced with a new situation. The outcome of the eastern war will decide whether it will be possible to begin a final offensive against BritainWe openly .agree that England has in some ways improved her strategic position but we cannot believe in. British victory.” Doubt is evident here, otherwise “British victory” would not even bo within the range of contemplation. On the following day Colonel Soldan, a military commentator, writing in the Volkischer Boebachter stated: “Can it possibly happen again, as in the previous war, that hunger, distress and misery can triumph over the soldier’s courage and quality of his weapons? Can war run aground, developing into a stationary struggle on an unimaginable scale? It is folly to want to forget that we have been oppressed by such anxieties.” These oppressing anxieties are now nine months old, since Colonel Soldan voiced them; they have been operating in the lowering and lowered temperature of a winter campaign in which German arms suffered severe losses. Hitler’s speeches in August of last year were full of confidence; despite what others may say he was still able to speak with confidence, but now even his voice quavers and quakes. It is idle to deny that inside Germany there were many men who found it hard to believe that Germany was capable of conducting a successful campaign against Russia and after that of turning back and fighting a successful campaign against the British Empire. But Germany must now count upon America also as a foe, and that was evident enough in August. Small wonder that Hess flew to England in the last vain hope of slopping Hitler in his supreme act of folly or. if that was impossible, of gaining Britain as an ally against “the Bolshevik peril. In such conditions as is evident exist in Germany to-day Otto Strasser, a former Nazi leader, who is now in Canada, believes that the Allies’ best method of shortening the war is to work for a revolution inside Germany. “There, are three groups,” he writes in the, Christian Science .Monitor, within Germany, with each of which a different approach must be made. There are the 10 per cent, who are militant anti-.Xazis; on the other hand there are only 10 per cent, who are utterly and irrevocably Nazis; and finally the great non-political body which, always goes with the- winning side.” “To the first, group wc must offer every help ami eneouiagement. They have been fighting and dying in this stiuggli .-.■gainst Hitlerism for 10 years. To them it is not enough to say that there will be- a. Germany after Hitler; they know it. \\ hat they want, is tangible evidence —such as a German National Council, to represent that new Germany, or a German legion—things that will not be just words, but an actuality. “To the second group, of convinced Nazis, we. must speak in the only language they understand--that of feat' and threats. .. . “Finally, there, is the great mass of 80 per eent. who are politically passive. They are interested in living and, therefore, in peace’, not war. With them three points must be driven home: Firstly, Hitler cannot win Secondly, with Hitler you can never have peace Thirdly, without Hitler you can have peace and a future.” The radio now offers an excellent opportunity for disseminating this propaganda, for despite all the penalties that are to be imposed upon those who listen to foreign broadcasts, these foreign broadcasts are listened to and the news circulates veil quickly. .Mr. Churchill’s warning to Germany that if poison gas is used on the Russian front the British will retaliate with poison gas bombs upon the- German people has caused immediate anxiety inside Germany and lias compelled the authorities to disclaim any intention of using poison gas. The Hitler regime is more dependent upon public morale than was the regime of the Kaiser. Then the people entered into war in 1914 with an enthusiasm that was unmistakable, and they were fascinated by the personality of the. Kaiser Io a very real degree. Hiller’s hold on “his people” has always been an unreal one. being backed up by the concentration eamp and the activities of the Gestapo. The Nazi Party has already suffered from casualties in the field ami it must be weaker in its relation to the mass of the German people to-day than it was before the war commenced. The problem is how this weakening process can be hastened. Strasser’s opinion on this point is worthy of consideration.