AUTHENTIC HITLER PORTRAIT

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 36, 13 February 1939, Page 3

AUTHENTIC HITLER PORTRAIT

Mr. G. Ward Price’s Vivid Description

Q EDWARD PRICE. British war correspondent, who is Adolf Hitler’s friend and supporter, and who has travelled, lunched, dined, and visited with him off and on for years, is now England’s most authentic news source as to what Der Fuhrer plans to de next writes Lemuel Parton in the San Francisco Chronicle. Lord Rothermere’s paper, the London Daily Mail, which employs Mr. Price, is scooping the ears off the other London sheets as Herr Hitler bares his soul to Mr. Price. Mr. Price previously has related how he and Lord Rothermere were two of four guests at Herr Hitler’s first formal dinner party after he seized power. That was December 19, 1934. It was about this time that Lord Rothermere, reaching 80 per cent, of the British reading public, through his newspapers and Press associations, began his unceasing campaign for Fascism in England. A third guest at the dinner was E. W. D. Tennant, of the Anglo-German fellowship, a fellowship which Lord Rothermere and Mr. Price have diligently fostered. Mr. Price, educated at Cambridge University, is a seasoned and richly garlanded British war correspondent. As foreign correspondent of the Daily Mail, he was with the Turkish Army m the first Balkan war; he was an official correspondent at the Dardanelles; he was with the British Army at Salonika, and, in the peace years, frequently was the official correspondent chosen to accompany the Prince of Wales on his African tours. He has long been a quasi-official reporter for the British Empire. He writes concisely, clearly, and expertly, with a keen alertness for revealing little human touches and with little concern for the dry imponderables of political or economic theory. His book, “I Know These Dictators,” published in this country a year ago, was, in the view of this writer, big news, and should have stirred up a lot of excitement. Principally about Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, it builds out of intimately observed minu-

tiae of their minds and persons a synthesis of virtue, charm, and heroism which shatters all the cruelly distorted portraits of these men drawn by other, less informed correspondents. Mr. Price, in his book reports that Adolf Hitler is genteel, humorous, courageous, chivalrous, abstemious, profoundly intellectual, kindly, forgiving, unselfish tender, a clever storyteller, and loves dogs and children. In the manner of a good reporter, he dosen’t merely sling adjectives. He supports each commendable attribute by indisputable proof. For instance, revelatory facts as to the main category of Der Fuhrer's virtues are set down thus: — Humour. —Mr. Hitler has a fat butler. When his guests have assembled at dinner he says: “Kannenberg, tell us how many chins you have.” Courage.—Once, at an evening party, somebody dropped a torpedo, like our Fourth of July torpedoes. “Hitler showed no alarm, but only laughed.” Vitality.—“He has the big-ball thumb, which palmists associate with strength of will.” Also, “the lobes of his ears are large, an indication regarded by physiognomists as a sign of vitality.” Forgiving nature.—Once, when he was a boy, a man called him a “village lout.” After he gained power, Mr. Hitler remembered this nut told Mr. Price he would not retaliate. Friendly nature— “He is fond of children and dogs, a trait regarded by many as evidence of good nature.” Abstinence.—He drinks only mineral water w’ith a dash of camomile In. iL It is also revealed that Mr Hitler wears well-cut shirts, that he has a

“soldierly figure,” that he used to part his hair in the middle, that he eats nudelsuppe with dumplings in it, that he has the "simplicity of genius,” that he is not a woman-hater, and that he hears voices. He told Mr. Price that once in the war, a voice said clearly, “Get out of here!” He did, and a shell killed the other fifteen men.