Nazi bigwigs in Berlin are suffering from the jitters, according to Wallace R. Deuel, correspondent of the Daily News, in a dispatch to his paper from the German capital.
“A fairly severe case of bad nerves has developed in certain important Nazi quarters during the last few days,” Deuel reports.
“The chief cause seems to be a lively fear that the great powers may soon take united and drastic action designed to halt German rearmament.
“At the same time there seem to be apprehensions of a new crisis of some kind within the party altogether different from that which resolved in such spectacular fashion on the sanguinary weekend of June 30.”
At least one unofficial American investigator has visited Geneva and Berlin during the last few days to obtain information to be presented to President Roosevelt with the view of persuading him to press for international action to block reconstruction of the Reich’s military juggernaut, the correspondent declared.
The powers do not appear at present to be agreed upon any kind of ultimatum to Germany, the correspondent states, but the idea is receiving serious consideration “in more than one chancellery.”
“The Nazis know this and are badly worried over it. As for the fear of a new crisis in the party, the only tangible basis for it seems to be Reichsfuehrer Hitler’s promise at Nuremberg that the party would be thoroughly purified of its baser elements.
“SLEEPING BADLY”
“A number of Nazis with bad consciences, or with little faith in the discrimination or gentleness with which the purifying operations will be carried out, appear to be sleeping very badly these nights.”
The spectre of possible dissolution has been raised again for the storm troopers, Deuel continues, as a result of fear of a united anti-Nazi international front.
“Whether the powers ultimately form a real united front on the issue of German armament, or fail in this arrangement, there already are adequate reasons for the Nazis’ crisis of nerves.
“Russia’s entry into the League of Nations is one reason. The current Anglo-French Italian reapproachment is another.
“Also, more than one ambassador here has frankly told a leading Nazi official recently that sentiment is growing outside of Germany for some kind of joint warning to the Third Reich against rearmament.”
The correspondent says it is extremely doubtful that any kind of international pressure short of actual war can prevent Germany’s rearmament within a few years.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
