1940-04-24 — Page 4

PAGE 4-HONGKONG. TELEGRAPH

YESTERDAY, Siṛ

Nevile Henderson; Britain's pre-war Ani bassador to Germany, told you abou

the ** sinister and menacing impres sion" he received at the Nazis' Nuremberg rally;

Hitler's coolness when he tried to, revive the plan for a friendly visit to London by Baron von Neurath ;.

Goering's hint that the Nazis might decide to revise the Anglo-German Naval Treaty despite Sir. Nevile's warning: "That would lead inevitably to war."

Fall the big Nazi leaders, Hermann Goering was

for me by far the most sym- pathetic.

He may have been the man who was chiefly responsible for the firing of the Reichstag in 1933, and be certainly was the one to whom, as his most trusted adherent, Hitler con- flded the taak of cleaning up Berlin at the time of the Roehm purge in 1934.

In any crisis, as in war, he would be quite ruthless. He once said to me that the British whom he really ad- mired were those whom he described as the pirates such as Francis Drake, and he re- proached us for having become too "debrutalised."

He was, in fact, himself a typical and brutal buccaneer, but he had certain attractive qualities and I must frankly say that I had a real personal Jiking for him.

་

I liked Frau Goering as much as her husband, and possibly for better moral reasons.

unaffected,

Absolutely

she was all kindness

and simplicity.

He would not

Sir Nevile Henderson

TO-DAY you read about Goering at home .. his playroom, stocked with mechanical toys. his wife, simple and kindly, his jovial hospi tality to Sir Nevile on a hunting expedition.. a nian with certain attractive qualities, but all the same a brute, a buccancer.

BOMBING

BRITAIN:

GOERING'S PLEDGE

part which he had played in the neither easily took nor lightly gave Nazi revolution,

been done, by Everything had Hitler, all the credit was Hiller's, every decision was Hitler's, and he himself was nothing.

sense of

He had a Falstafan humour, and was said to have mode a collection of the innumer- able jokes which were made about his foibles by the Berliners.

In this respect he was quite un- like Dr. Goebbels or Hitler.

Most of the stories about Goering were, however, gond natured, and generally, such as the following. made fun of his love for decorn- tion:.

offence, and he was quick to seize the point at which one was driving. I do not flatter myself that, in the long conversations wilch I had with him, I ever modified his opinions, but he was always ready to listen and eager to learn.

66

"Military Objectives only""-

He was always, for instance, ask- ing questions about England and English personalities, about whom he was very fully, though often in-

INSTALMENT

THREE

Big Three of Nazi Germany bend their heads together. Centre is Joseph Goebbels whom Goering may yet have to fight before inheriting the Fuehrer's mantle.

son of the present German com-

mander-in-chief,

Slag-shooting In the dense forests

of Europe is not like deer-stalking

spled outa

2

in Scotland. The deer cannot be from distance, and their can be discovered only when they roar

during the rutting season. In the evening the stag comes out into some favourite clearing in the forest, where the grass is sweetest, and the easiest way to shoot him is to wait at some sultable spot on its edge til he docs 10.

"Hochstande" (literally high- stands, or a sort of platform some 20 to 30 feet high) ore sometimes erected at such spots, and all the sportsman has to do is to climb it and walt, an hour or so before the stag usually appears with

harem.

I had arrived carly In the morn- Ing, and at about 4 p.m. arrange- ments were made for me to go to such n place to shoot a blg 14 pointer which Was

known frequent it.

I was rather

"fficier went one day to visit correctly, informed, but in respect Nervous

God. The Almighty said, I am always glad to see you, Adolf, but I wish you would stop that fellow Hermann from coming up here. Every time he comes he takes acap another star.""

have Risked War brought before the

The first time I met her was when she came with her husband to a big lunch at the Embassy to ineet the Prime Minister of Cant- du, Mr. Mackenzle King, who was paying-a-visit to Derlin after the conclusion

Another was about a motoris! who ran into the Field Marshal's car on a dark night, and was judge on a charge of reckless driving. He pleaded that It was not his fault, but that of the Field

Marshal,

who, he said, had forgotten to dim his decorations. He was aequitted.

isto. Played alone with

ference in June, 1937.

At the end of lunch there was a dish of cheese on pastry, which she refused on the ground that her allow her to ent doctor did not pastry.

I suggested that it was a ques- tlon of her excellent figure, and her reply was "Oh, no, Hermunn likes women who are fat."

I apologised to her, saying that

I was not trying to be personal, and that I thought it only right that woman should consider their Agures.

Vanity was, in my opinion, I said, just as charming in women us It was repugnant in mes,

It was possibly a tactless remark to make to her as her husband's vanity, though harmless and child- ish, was notorious. But her only comment was "Do you really think so I approve of vanity in a man."

She said I so simply and natur- ally that one could not have helped liking her, and the more I saw her, the more I did like her,

Had she been politically minded she and her baby could have been and possibly were a good Influence In Guering's life.

I would like to express here my belief that the Field Marshal..

if it had depended on him, would not have gambled on war as Hit- fer did in 1030,

As will be related in due course he came down decisively on the side of peace In September, 1938. Ho was rumoured to have lost much of Hitler's favour on that account, and it is possible that if it had not been for his efforts in 1038 he would have played the. same role in 1939.

Once was an experience, but tivice would have been regarded by Hitler as vice. _

.

Toy Bombers

compassion

However little Goering may have had, like so many Germans, for his fellow-men, he loved animals and children, and

of whom he often also expressed shrewd judgments.

Nor, except on the lust occasion on which I ever saw him, did he ever make those tiresome speeches to which one had sometimes to listen from others.

I spent two hours in his company un August 31 last, while the Polishi Ambassador was seeing Ribbentrop, And a few hours before the advance of the German army Into Polish territory and the dispatch of his airmen at dawn to bomb the Polish aerodrome.

--At-that-inoment the order for the aggression had not yet finally been signed by Hitler, and every- thing was believed to hang upon the nature of the Interview be tween Lipski and Ribbentrop..

Goering, though absolutely ready to press the button, still seemed at

least half hopeful

of a peaceful is- sue.

Incidentally, he gave me the most categorical assur- ances that, in the event of war with Britain, his air- not men would bomb anything except definitely military objcc-

tives.

When I pointed out that, owing to und the height speed of modern aircraft, that would not pre- vent bombs, aim- ed supposedly at a military target, falling in residen- tial London, and that

would much object to being hit on the head by "any such present from Hermann Goering," his immediate answer was that, if that did hap- pen, he would certainly send a special aeroplane to drop a wreath at my funeral.

"Frau Goering and her baby could have been, and possibly were, a good influence in Goering's life.” before ever he had a child of his own, the top floor at his home at Kariahali, 40 miles from Berlin, contained a vast play room fitted up with every loy dear to the heart of the modern child.

Nothing used to give him greater pleasure than to go and play there with them.

The toys might, It is true, In- clude models of acroplanes drop- ping heavy bombs which explod- ed on defencelese towns or vil lasce, but, as he observed when I reproached blm on the subject, it was not part of the Nazi con- ception of lfe to be excesively clyllised or to teach squeamish- news to the young,

Collected Jokes Fulling children he would romp

About Himself

Glooring was the absolute servant of his master, and I have never seen greater loyalty and devotion than his to Hitler.

In all the very frank- talks which I had with Goering, he never once spoke of himself or of the great

with one of the baby lions, of which there was always one in the house until his daughter Edda arrived.

In spite of his innumerable acti- vities, Goering would always find time, not only to see one but to give one an apparently unlimited amount of his time.

He was a man to whom one could absolutely frankly. He

speak

And, if it did happen, I have no doubt he would do so.

Challenged Me

at Stag-Hunt

My first experience of his hoa- pitality was at a stag-hunting estate in party at Rominten, his East Prussia.

The house. itself was a simple alboting-box with a thatched roof, but atted Internally with every comfort.

As far as I was aware, the house- hold consisted solely of maids with one manservant, and there was no ceremony of any kind.

One of his Swedish brothers÷10¬ law, Count Rosen, was the only. other guest, and the rest of the of Oberstinger- party consisted meister Scherping, Obserstjagor- meister Menthe, and a young Air Omeer A.D.C., Von Brauchitsch, a

to

Before starting off, Goering re- murked that Englishmen, howeyer good they might be with shot guns, were no good with a rifle. He had once invited in English sporisman to shoot stag and he had missed It three timest

It was not an encouraging start, and made me feel as if I had got to defend the whole sporting honour of the British Isles.

Nor was. my nervousness dl. minished

found that I was when I to be accompanied by Scherping and Menthe as well US by the regular keeper on whose beat this particular stag lived.

נf

poor

I could not help reflecting that my companions were all feeling

of rather contemptuous

" damned diplomat, and British one at that.

Fortune was, however, with me on that occasion. We mounted the

walt high stand, and after a

of over an hour, the stag and his harem appeared ut quite different place from that at which they were expected, and a good half-mile nway.

Goering's

Peace Terms

on

to do nothing to hinder her legt: ilmato expansion.

It was the theory of the free hand for Germany in Central and Eastern Europe, and in substance

Identical with the Inst posals handed to me by Hitler on August 25 two years later.

was

mare

pro

Its very simplicity made it the plausible, but it left out of all account not only the national conscience and international idealism of the Western demo- cracies, but also the methods and exaggerated pretensions of Nazism. With a Germany prepared to admit the equality of rights of others, and to solve problems by negotiation instead of by force, a Buch gentleman's agreement on lines would have recommend it.

had

much

to

Any attempt to achieve it was bound to fall as long as Hkler and his Nazi regime persisted in employing outside Germany the same methods used to secure their position within Germany,

(Copyright in all countries through Raymond Savage Limited, London. Reproduction in whole or in part strictly prohibited.] TO-MORROW you will read of peace moves, then a dramatic warning-"It is not an army but the whole German nation which is being prepared for war."

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There was nothing for it but to descend and attempt a stalk more or less Scottish lines. That meant walking some distance, then long crawl on hands and knees and finally creeping all alone on the flat of my, face til I reuched n pmall knobble about yards from the herd.

When I got there the stag was kindly standing broadside on, and I shot it through the heart.

From that moment my reputa- tion as a sportsman was secure.

Goering was, felt, delighted and, when his people told him that had had to cravi on my stomach (a rare event in a German forest) he remarked, with a guffaw of laughter, that that, was the right way for diplomats to get about.

Incidentally I shot a second stog the next morning, again with one shot, and once more in the course of a stalk instead of on set gives "highstand," which always one the impression of shooting at a target.

13

After that I was considered worthy to become, as I did later, an honorary member of the Ger- man Jagerschaft

I left Romintea with regret. I had had ong long political thile with Very shrewd and astute Goering. és fat men so often are, his mind was simple and dealt only with essentials

His idea of an understanding between Great Britain and Gera many was an strectaent limited to two clausEN,

In the first, Germany would recognise the supreme position of Great Britain overseas, and undertake to but all her re- sources; at the disposal of the **British Empire in case of need.

By the second, Great Briisin would recognise the Dredomin- ant continental position of, Ger- maby In Europé, and undertake

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