Evening star., 1938-02-11
REICH ATTRIBUTES
RUM0RS TOPOLES
News Corps Hears Defiant
Denial of Outbreaks in
Germany.
By the Associated Press.

By the Associa ted Press.
BERLIN, Feb. 1l-Alfred Ingemar
Berndt, vice chief of the German
governments press department. today
issued a wholesale. defiant denial con-
cerning developments arising from
Reichsfuehrer Hitler's drastic shake
up of the Reich's leadership Feb
ruary 4.
Addressing the foreign correspond
ents' corps on behalf of DR.. Paul JOS
eph Goebbels, minister of propa-
eanda, and DR.. Otto Dietrich, the
Nazi press chief. Herr Berndt de-
clared Polish-Jewish sources were re-
sponslble for reports which spread
through Europe yesterday
These included supposed garrison
uprisings, impending further army
changes. the alleged fight abroad of
the former Crown Prince. street fights
In Berlin and closing of Germany's
frontiers.
Offers Inspection Trip.
He offered free air or rail transpor-
tation to any one who cared to go to
Allenstein, in East Prussia. to see for
himself that reported friction there
between the army and the Schultz
Spaffel Reichsfuehrer Hitler's elite
guard. did not exist
Hitler, he said, would return to Ber-
lin February Is from his Berchtesga-
den retreat. A press communique later
described Der Fuehrers health as "ex-
cellent"
Talk of Hitler having lost his voice,
Herr Berndt declared, was nonsense.
Wait till you hear his voice your
selves at the Reichstag session Febru-
ary 90" he added.
Herr Berndt declared the black
shirted IS. s. guard and the army
were good comrades" and that no
IS. s. men had presumed to occupy
army barracks.
The only army officers who fled
Germany, he said derisively, were five
lieutenants who went skiing in Austria,
Border Not Strengthened.
He said border guards had not been
Increased. Automobile roads on the
Belgian frontier, Herr Berndt main
tanned. were closed at the suggestion
OF the Belgian government because
negotiations still were pending con-
cerning the passage of trucks
Herr Berndt said any one who as
serted that Field Marshal Werner Won
Blomoerg and Col. Gen Werner Won
Fritsch had reSigned--as war minister
and chief of staff. respectively-for
reasons other than health were in
decent"
Herr Berndt asserted emphatically:
Not single change has been made
IN the army beyond those announced
February 4, and not a single further
change is contemplated Why speak
OF disagreements between the army
and the political leadership? Such a
thing Is simply unthinkable in Ger
many
The German Army is unpolitical
Only this morning We read of big
changes in the American Army. We
md these quite natural. and we do
not speculate on differences between
the President and the generals. He
referred evidently to Washington dis
patches stating many United States
Army generals are due for retirement
this year,
But when We make changes. every
body abroad thinks they can pick on
us."
Problems in Rumania.
Government officials who worked
into the late hours last night because
of the rumors vera confronted also
with problems surrounding the reslg-
nation of Premier Octavian Goga S
cabinet in Rumania and the possible
relationships the new regime might
have with the Reich
Because of the change in the Ru-
manlan goVernment--Nazl officials
had looked upon Rumania under Gcga
as definitely swinging toward the
rieht-German foreign experts on
Rumanian affairs were summoned
hastily from a ball for explanation
and Interpretation of the situation.