FIT OF FURY

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 1, Issue 17, 29 May 1939, Page 6

FIT OF FURY

HITLER IN A RAGE HAD TO RE.WRITE SPEECH Mr Chamberlain's declaration of liis plans to build a Grand Alliance similar to that which rolled the mighty Napoleon into the dust, roused Hei'r Hitler to fury, according to the magazine Cavalcade. '•His anger is a measure of his fear;,'' the Cavalcade says ''and can he, dare ho make war? The answer is' 'No; he would not go into a war spelling certain defeat for Germany and a possible death on a lamp post for himself.' "Information direct from Germany says that the Fuehrer had already prepared his speech when Mr Chamberlain's Polish declaration was handed to him. The immediate result was a fit of his now famous tantrums and a threat to seize Danzig and the Polish Corridor immediately. "The 'yes-men' o£ his, entourage! got frightened. There was no Goering to argue with the frenzied Fuehrer. Field-Marshal Goering was a,way in Italy. There was no Goebbels to urge a propaganda policy. Dr Goebbels was on holiday in Greece. "This meant that the war.malung triumvirate —Herr von Ribbentrop, Herr Himmler and Herr Hitler —was ir> charge of a situation that might lead Europe into war in 24 hours. "Hitler was due to speak at the launching of the new battleship Von Tirpitz. and arrangements had been made for a broadcast of the speech to the United States. 1 "REWRITING SPEECH'* "An hour before the Fuehrer Was due to stand behind his bullet-proof glass screen he was hastily rewriting his speech. Near him were oflicers of the German navy and the Reichswehr. They did not know what he was going to say, but they feared the worst. "It wa s they who arranged the 'technical hitch/ and an unnamed technician—guaranteed protection in advance by the oflicers —inilled out a Pl"g. "Records were taken of the speech, however, and revealed nothing out the pleas and squibs of a man, fully conscious that he was on the spot, bill the incident throws light on the forces of peace surrounding Hitler. "It shows that there are people in. Germany prepared to take the gravest risks to prevent the Nazi war lord from running amok. ''Evidence daily accumulates to show- that Hitler is under internal suspicion and external hostility, rind ,is facing the most critical days ol his career.'"