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Show MJ Mtf PRBWPEARSON in lhgi ROBERT AtjLEN Washington, D. C. AN INSIDE STORY Vord trickling back to the diplomatic diplo-matic corps from Germany indicates indi-cates that Hitler is beginning to realize that the United States means business, and that he made a tragic mistake in not accepting the advice of his more conservative diplomats who warned him of this in the first place. In fact, the inside story, which now can be told, is one of the most tragic of the war. Possibly if it had not been for overweening personal jealousies the war might even have been prevented. What happened was that when Hans Dieckhoff, German ambassador ambassa-dor to Washington, returned to Berlin Ber-lin in 1933, he brought back a strong report that the United States would enter the war eventually if Germany became the aggressor. He was ready to warn that Germany faced I a repetition of 1917-18. But Foreign Minister Von Ribbentrop would not let him see Hitler. Ribbentrop, probably the most ambitious man around der Fuehrer and a great friend of Himmler, wanted to be the funnel for all advice ad-vice going to Hitler. Also he was feeding him his own kind of aggressive aggres-sive advice, not the cooling caution of Ambassador Dieckhoff. In the same cautious school with the ambassador were Baron Von Neurath, recently ousted as governor gover-nor of Czechoslovakia because of his moderate views; Hjalmar Schacht, governor of the Reichs-bank, Reichs-bank, now in virtual retirement; and Capt. Fritz Wiedemann, Hitler's former commander and more recently re-cently consul general at San Francisco. Fran-cisco. Even Field Marshal Goer-ing Goer-ing was much more moderate than Von Ribbentrop. Czech Putsch Delayed. It was Captain Wiedemann, who, around May, 1938, chiefly persuaded Hitler not to invade Czechoslovakia. He was then Hitler's military aide and attended a meeting of der Fuehrer's inner advisers at which general staff advised caution. Finally Final-ly Hitler, exasperated, threw up his arms and ordered tnem.all out of the room. But Wiedemann stayed b' hind, and finally persuaded his chief to delay the march into Cezchoslo vakia at least until the fall of 1938 which was done. Later, it was Wiedemann and hi moderates who persuaded Hitler t receive Chamberlain and Daladie at Munich. But by this time it wav too late for Ambassador Dieckhoff to tell his story. Ribbentrop never forgave Wiedemann Wiede-mann for this. Also his vaunting ambition would permit no rival close to Hitler. So, shortly thereafter, he got "Wiedemann transferred to a distant dis-tant and relatively unimportant German consulate in the U.S.A. Later when Wiedemann was deported deport-ed from this, country, it is significant signifi-cant that Ribbentrop once again transferred him as far as possible from Berlin this time to Tientsin China. i The foreign minister of Germany wants no moderates around. ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN Don't be surprised if a U. S. warship war-ship disembarks a load of Nazi sailors and turns them over to the justice department to be tried on charges of "piracy." It is even possible that in the "haul" may be an armed Nazi raider raid-er or two that had been operating down Brazil way. Anything may happen these eventful event-ful days since the President enunciated enun-ciated U. S. determination to maintain main-tain freedom of the seas, and branded Nazi submarines and surface sur-face raiders in American waters as "pirates." Armed Nazi ships are prowling American waters and the U. S. navy has its orders. It can be revealed that neither the justice nor war department would be surprised if they had some "pirate" seamen and "pirate" craft to deal with soon. Both have been quietly studying for a week the law and precedents concerning such an eventuality. The war department enters the picture because under the law all war prisoners landed on U. S. soil come under custody of the army. However, the U. S. is not at war, so there is doubt over the army's jurisdiction. No final decision has been reached, but the consensus of the legal experts is that any such "pirates" should be turned over to the justice department. One suggested procedure is that the Nazis be landed at a U. S. port and then jailed by the justice department de-partment as aliens without passports. pass-ports. But most of the legal authorities author-ities contend that the Nazis should be dealt with squarely as buccaneers. CAPITAL CHAFF In a direct membership election, the American Newspaper Guild has overwhelmingly defeated the leftist clique which, for several years has controlled the national offices of the union. The entire group was cleaned out and a militant anti-Red slate elected. Cordell Hull has a new car, a long sleek limousine, but without either radio or heater. Quoted at $2,611 for the retail trade, the car cost the government only $1,800. Also gas costs only eight cents a gallon. |
