NEW COUNCIL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 May 1942, Page 4

NEW COUNCIL

SET UP BY GOERING ANTICIPATIONS OF ANOTHER PURGE. TALK OF ELIMINATING VON PAPEN. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, May 24. The establishment by Field Marshal Goering of a council of Service chiefs and incltis- ■ trialists is the second important development on the German home front at the weekend, says the diplomatic correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph,” the other being the dismissal of Dr Darre, Minister of Agriculture. A remarkable feature of Goering’s move, says the correspondent, is that the council does not include an active member of the Nazi Party apart from Goering himself. Practically all the members personally support Goering. The council has decreed the introduction of more foreign workers, restricted holidays, and longer hours. The council includes General Milch, Inspector-General of the Luftwaffe, Colonel-General Fromm, who is an old collaborator of Goering’s, and also Herr Paul Kleigher, of the Hermann. Goering steel works, and other military, naval, and industrial personalities. Dr. Darre’s downfall was due to the breakdown of the German food policy, with which he had been associated since Hitler came to power. His successor is Herr Backe, who has always been State Secretary under Darre. Consequently no real change of policy is to be expected. The foreign editor of “Reynold’s News” expresses the opinion now that Hitler is planning a new purge of leaders of the Nazi Party. “Though it will be less drastic than that of the night of the long knife in 1934,” he says, “it will involve many of the best-known party chiefs. One of the first heads to roll into the basket is likely to be that of von Papen. Led by Goebbels and von Ribbentrop, the ‘Papen must go’ clique is stressing his failure to bring Turkey into the Axis orbit.”