POSITION OF DOENITZ

Waikato Times, Volume 106, Issue 22612, 17 May 1945, Page 2

POSITION OF DOENITZ

VON KROSIGK’S ACCOUNT COUNTRY’S HOUR OF NEED LONDON, May 16 The German acting-Prime Minister, Foreign Minister and Minister of Finance, Count Schwerin von Krosigk, said in an interview with a correspondent of the British Broadcasting Corporation that Doenitz was not the political head of the Government. He was head of the State, and as such was in a similar position to a Sovereign. When he assumed the position of Fuehrer, Doenitz entrusted Krosigk with the formation of a Government of experts whose members would act as a State body in the critical situation then facing Germany. Krosigk said he took the post of acting-Prime Minister and at the same time the portfolios of Finance and Foreign Affairs. There were other experts in the particular fields in this Government. Devotion to German People Krosigk, in the course of the interview, emphasised his complete lack of any personal ambition and the devotion to the German people which activated him and his colleagues. “We are concerned in the fundamental task of providing food, clothing and work for the German people at this critical time of their history,” he said: “I do not know if the Allied occupying Powers will allow us to continue in our positions. Speaking purely personally, if I am relieved of my post I shall be only too pleased. “Both I and my colleagues, however, feel that we cannot abandon the German people in this hour of need, and we feel we are the men best equipped to deal with the task and help the Allied occupying Powers.” Krosigk, says the correspondent, indulged in thinly-veiled anti-Russian propaganda during the interview.

“I understand that Doenitz’s main objective was the establishment of peace,” the correspondent said. “Thjat is so,” replied Krosigk.

“Then how can that be reconciled with his first declaration to the armed forces that Bolshevism would be fought until the end, and that if the British and American armies interfered they, too, would be combated?” asked the correspondent. Impossible Position

To this Krosigk replied that when Doenitz took over the post of Fuehrer he found himself in an almost impossible position. The Russians were pressing forward, driving hundreds of thousands of refugees from the eastern provinces before them. Doenitz felt that if he gave the order for capitulation at such a time the Germans facing the Russians would

refuse to obey. He had to play desperately for time to allow the refugees to get farther to the west and prevent their over-running by the retreating German armies and the pursuing Russians. That was why Doenitz gave this order. The time gained by it was sufficient for the greater part of the refugees to fall back and for the German armies to retreat slowly. As soon as he felt that the object had been accomplished he surrend o *^