“SUICIDE CLUB"

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20127, 22 December 1939, Page 7

“SUICIDE CLUB"

HITLER’S GERMANY VIEWS IN BRITAIN BUENOS AIRES DRAMA SYMBOL OF NAZI RULE GERMAN HONOUR LOST FUEHRER TO BLAME (Elec. Tel. Copyright—United Press Assn.) (British Official Wireless.) Reed. 11 a.m. ' RUGBY, Dec. 21. The news of the suicide of Captain Langsdorff, the commander of the German pocket battleship Graf von Spee, was received in London with feelings which show respect for the personal tragedy of an enemy whose individual,behaviour, as distinct from the orders which he acted upon, appear to have been always in accord with the best traditions common to the naval services of all nations.

The final sacrifice of Captain Langsdorff after the humiliation of scuttling his ship on orders from Berlin is taken by many commentators in London as conclusive evidence of the cleavage between the instincts of officers in the older German services and the command of the Nazi politicians now in control in Germany.

The German commander would have found particularly bitter the advertisement to the world which he was compelled to give, that Herr Hitler himself already realised that he has lost the war. That is the moral almost universally drawn from the incident not only in the British press but in extracts from the neutral press reaching London.

This defeatist interpretation is dwelt on at some length by the Boston Herald, which considers that the decision to scuttle the Graf von Spee indicates more clearly what is in the minds of the Nazi leaders than Herr Hitler’s boast about the preparations for a long conflict and the certainty of a Germany victory. The suicide of Captain Langsdorff is the subject of much comment and speculation in the press. Irksome Commands

The Yorkshire Post expresses the view almost universally held nere that the reason 'of the German commander’s act was that as a naval officer ot the old school he could not endure the behaviour forced upon him from Berlin, and It adds: “It may also set people wondering how many othei regular officers in the German navy and army are not altogether happy in obeying Nazi commands.” Several writers see the drama at Buenos Aires as a symbol. The Dah> Herald, for example, says: “Adoii Hitler found Germany a great nation, proud and free. In seven short years he has reduced it to a suicide club—a crowd of desperate human beings rushing to destruction without honour and without hope.” In similar vein, the News-Chronicle observes: “Herr Hitler was going to make Germany great. Instead, through this war which he provoked he is destroying her possessions and draining away her wealth. He is scuttling not merely his ships, but his country. Herr Hitler the scuttler will be his name.” “Sulky Schoolboy” Justification of this verdict is supplied by other newspapers, which recall that the 32,000-ton liner Columbus, scuttled so soon after the destruction of the Graf von Spec comes on top of at least 23 other German ships ordered out to sea in the last few weeks fo sink themselves. In the face of Allied naval supei'iority, which renders German, ships impotent, many observers see Herr Hitler acting like a sulky, disappointed schoolboy who is determined to destroy things rather than that others should have the bene fit of them. Herr Hitler’s personal guilt is much insisted upon. The Times writes: “The guilt of this brave officer’s death rests upon Adolf Hitler, though he is not of the temper that will evci understand why. Captain Langsdorff, in dying, has appealed over the head of this despotism to the spirit of an older, a nobler, and, we may hope, a more enduring Germany. We who are at war with Hitlerism cling to the belief that this Germany lives on. though deprived of voice. Values of Chivalry “Unhappily, the Nazi system of °overnment makes it impossible •to distinguish those Germans who preserve values of chivalry and civilisation from the perjured and murderous faction which usurps their name. No man living in Germany can keep his private honour untarnished by the Nazi mud.” The sacrifice of Captain Langsdorff to the swastika, as The Times calls it, and the reckless scuttling of German ships on the orders of Berlin, is linked by other commentators with the desperate tactics of the air bombardment and machine-gunning of fishing trawlers in the North Sea On this, the Daily Telegraph avers: “Not by such fighting do the forces of a nation maintain their efficiency, stil! less weaken a resolute adversary. They harden the invincible determination to defeat the worst they can do.”