SIGNS OF STRAIN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 May 1943, Page 3

SIGNS OF STRAIN

BEING SHOWN BY HITLER. REPORTED TALK TO BALKAN QUISLING. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, May 8. How Hitler had changed under the impact of Allied successes, and the line he took with Balkan puppet Premiers recently summoned to Germany, was revealed to the “Daily Express’s ’ Istanbul correspondent by a man who lunched with the Fuehrer during talks with one Balkan Quisling. The informant told’ the correspondent: “I do not wish to over-dramatise my impressions, but Hitler is thinner, more absent-minded and more poucheyed. He appears to be suffering severely from nervous exhaustion compared with the Hitler I knew two and a half years ago. He has also acquired the habit of biting his fingernails. “Hitler told each Balkan visitor that Germany's total offensive against Russia in 1943 will be aimed at the final destruction of Russian military power. The Germans will use gas where Russian resistance seems capable of endangering decisive German victory. “Russia will be offered acceptable peace terms if not broken militarily by the end of September. The terms will include a ten-year non-aggression pact from Japan as well as Germany. Any Allied invasion of the Continent will be confined to the outer circle of the European defences, thereby eventually forcing Britain and (America into a compromise.” •