War News in Views

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 35, 30 March 1942, Page 3

War News in Views

PLAN FOR NAZI CHURCH GETTING RID OF BIBLE MAINFESTO DISTRIBUTED "A leaflet, the text of Avhich is presumbly identical with that of the document mentioned in Mr Roosevelt's Navy Day speech, and which foreshadows the advent of a National Reich Church destined to supplant every other religious body throughout Germany, is now in circulation all over the Reich," writes The Time? correspondent stationed on the German frontier. "The movement is not avowedly sponsored by either the State or the National-Socialist Party, but itself demands (and undoubtedly would at the appropriate moment receive) recognition by identifiaction with the National-Socialist State, which the Reich Church would exist to serve. "The essential features of this long manifesto arc as follows: —- "The aim of the National Reich Church is the redemption of all delegation, of the sole right of absolute pewer over all Churches within the frontiers of the Rcic.h. "The Reich Church is to serve solely and exclusively tlic idea of Volk unci Rasse, that is, first the nation in the sense of an ethnical unit, and secondly the Aryan race. "All other Churches and religious bodies, particularly those international in character or under international direction, will not be tolerated within Germany. Devotional services will take place in the evenings only, and regularly on Saturday nights, will be accompanied by a solemn illumination. "The Reich Church must be fused with the State, and be subject to the State as an obedient member. Immediate confiscation by the State of the property belonging to all Churches and confessions is emphatically demanded. "The printing and sale of the Bible within Germany must cease immediately, and the importation of

Bibles or oilier Christian literature must be ruthlessly prohibited. The greatest written document belonging to the German people is proclaimed to be Hitler's Mem Kampf, bccause this is not only the greatest but also the purest ethical guide for the present-day life of our people."

"ON FULL ALERT"

U.S. PURSUIT PLANES READY

FOR ATTACK

TWENTY <FOUR HOUR VIGIL Alerted for an attack on the continental United States by enemy bombers, defending fighter planes would be off tlic ground and racing for altitude even before their pilots knew "where to intercept the enemy. At scores of dispersal fields up and down the Pacific and Atlantic seaboards, American pursuit pilots are taking turns at ground alert, ready to jump into their machines and lly into action. They know that an attack can come from more than one direction at once. They know how to recognise and cope with different types of enemy 1 bombers. They knew that anti-aircraft fire from their own batteries, aground, will try to keep the enemy high in the air and spoil the aim of the bombardiers. Even as high as 20,001) feet the anti-aircraft gunners may be able to pick off enemy planes. Surface fire against attacking planes up to now has not been very successful except insofar as it keeps the attackers high. Even then planes manage to slip through the "ackack" barrage. British warships in the Mediterranean repeatedly have driven ofT scrties of Italian and German divebombers, but gunners on the British Repulse and Prince of Wales, off Malaya, failed to cope with Japanese torpedo bombers.