“HITLER THE SCUTTLER”

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20994, 22 December 1939, Page 5

“HITLER THE SCUTTLER”

SUICIDE OF CAPTAIN LANGSDQRFF

GERMANY RUSHING TO DESTRUCTION

NATION WITHOUT HONOUR, HITLER HELD RESPONSIBLE

(Official Wireless) 'Received Dec. 22. 12.30 p.m.) RUGBY, Dec. 21 The suicide of Captain Langsdorff, commander of the Admiral Graf Spee, which was scuttled after an encounter with British cruisers, is still the subject of much comment and speculation in the press. The Y orkshire Post expresses the view almost universally held here, that the reason of the German Commander’s act was that as a naval officer of the old school he could not endure the behaviour forced upon him from Berlin, and it adds: “ It may also set people wondering as to how many of the regular officers in the German Navy and army are not altogether happy in obeying the Nazi commands.” Several writers see the drama at Buenos Aires as a symbol. The Daily Herald, for example, says: “Adolph Hitler found Germany a great nation, proud and free. In seven short years he has reduced it to asu ide club—a crowd of desperate human beings rushing to destruction without honour and without hope”

In similar vein the News-Chronicle observes: “ 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. ‘ Hitler the Seuttlcr ’ will be his name.”

Hitler’s Personal Guilt Justification of this verdict is supplied by other newspapers, which recall that the 32000-ton liner Columbus, scuttled so soon after the destruction of the Admiral Graf Spee, comes on top of at least 23 other German ships ordered out to sea in the last few weeks to sink themselves. In the face of the Allied naval superiority, which renders German ships impotent, many observers see Hitler acting like a suL;y, disappointed schoolboy, who is determined to destroy things rather than that others should have the benefit of them. 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 ever 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 a voice. “Unhappily the Nazi system of Government makes it impossible to distinguish those Germans who preserve the 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.” Sacrifice To Swastika The sacrifice of Captain Langsdorff to the swastika, as the Times calls it, and the reckless scuttling of German ships on orders from Berlin, is linked by other commentators with the desperate tactics of air bombardment and the 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, still less weaken a resolute adversary. They harden the invincible determination to defeat the worst that they can do.”

GERMAN PROTEST

INTERNMENT OF CREW CRITICISM OF ARGENTINE (United Press Assn.—Elec. Tel. Copyright) (Received December 22, 1 p.m.) LONDON, Dec. 21 It is officially stated that Germany has formally protested to the Argentine against the internment of the crew of the Admiral Graf Spee. It is pointed out that shipwrecked sailors reaching a neutral country cannot be interned. The Netherlands in similar circumstances released crews from British cruisers in the last war.

BURIAL OF CREW

ALLEGATIONS BY GERMANS BRITISH SEAMEN MALIGNED (United Press Assn.—Elec Tel. Copyright) BERLIN, Dec. 21 The German official news agency says:— “We have just learned of unexampled occurrences at the burial of the Graf Spee’s dead. British seamen spat on the coffins during the procession, yowled during the funeral oration, and threw a dead dog in the grave.”

JOINED AIR FORCE

high commissioner s son /United Press Assn.—Elec. Te!. Copyright) (Received Dec. 22. 11.25 a.m.) LONDON. Dec. 21 . Mr William Jordan, the New Zeas land High Commissioner’s only son, has joined the Air Force officers’ training unit.

HARD=WON GLORY

LOSS OF NATIONS’ RESPECT PRESS COMMENT IN AMERICA A DREAM DESTROYED c United Press Assn.—Elec. Tel. Copyright) NEW YORK, Dec. 20 The New York Times, in a leading article, says: “ To Nazi Germany the end of the Admiral Graf Spee and of Captain Langsdorff may be glorious, but it is glory won at the price of tradition, of the respect of other men and nations, and perhaps eventually of German naval morale.” Colonel Frederick Palmer, military expert of the North American Newspaper Alliance, says: “ Naval history records no greater humiliation than that of Captain Langsdorff. Corporal Hitler may find Storm Troop methods ineffective in the Navy.” The Montevideo correspondent of the New York Times says: “ Captain Langsdorff made a serious psychological error which contributed heavily to his depression. He mistook Montevideo’s homage to those of the Graf Spee’s crew who were killed as a great popular Latin expression of approval of what he and his sailors stood for. Popular Feeling Cold He went to Buenos Aires expecting to be welcomed with open arms; instead, he found popular feeling so cold that Argentina would be an unpleasant place to live in. “ He was convinced that his crew would be received as shipwrecked sailors, and he expected to get them to Germany on board Italian steamers bound for Trieste. Their internment destroyed his dream, while Argentine newspapers taunted him as a coward and a traitor to the traditions of the sea.” Body Lying in State Captain Langsdorff presumably used his own pistol, as Argentine officials later explained that the officers had not been relieved of their swords and pistols because they were considered personal adornments and not belligerent weapons. The body is lying in state at the Argentine Naval Arsenal, and the burial will take place with full honours at he German cemetery at 6 p.m. to-morrow.

Captain Patrick Dove, of the Africa Shell, one of the ships sunk by the Graf Spee, said: “ There was no mercy from Langsdorff when there was fighting to do, but when not fighting he was a fine gentleman.” Captain Potinger, of the British steamer Ashlea, sunk by the Graf Spee, will represent former captives on the German battleship at the funeral.

A communique issued by the German Naval High Command in Berlin said: “ The German Navy understands and esteems Captain Langsdorff’s act. As a fighter he did what the Fuehrer and the German people and Navy expected. He was faithful to the ancient radition, and followed his ship.” Feeling in England

The news has been 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—appears to have been always in accord with the j best traditions common to the naval I services of all nations, says a British j official wireless message. | The final sacrifice of Captain Langsdorff, after the humiliation of 1 scuttling his ship on orders from Ber- ! lin, is taken by many commentators j here as conclusive evidence of the cleavage between the instincts of the officers in the old German services and the commands of the Nazi politicians now in control of Germany. The German commander would have found particularly bitter the advertisement to the world which he was compelled to give —that Hitler himself has 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 iength by

the Boston Herald, which considers the decision to scuttle the Graf Spee indicates more clearly what is in the minds of the Nazi leaders than Hitler’s boast about preparations for a long conflict and the ceruauty of a German victory.