Evening star., 1939-05-07
Reich Reported
Sounding Soviet
For Closer Ties
Evidence Piling Up
Ropprochement
May Be Near
The European Situation

The European Situation
GERMANY REPORTED SOUND
ING out Soviet Russia for closer
ties; Danzig plebiscite indicated as
Reich strategy. Page Al
POPE Plus REPORTED to have
made overtures with all force OF
Catholic Church to safeguard
peace of Europe. Page Al
DANZIG, CAUGHT BETWEEN
Polish and German troop concen-
trations, strains efforts to avoid
provoking moves by either.
Page "A
ITALIAN AND GERMAN foreign
ministers confer at Milan, Italy,
on axis resistance to encirclement,
East Europe and mutual defense.
Page A-4
BREAKDOWN OF NEGOTIA-
TIONS for security pact with Sow
let feared If Moscow rejects COM
promise" proposals Of western
powers. Page Al
By LOUIS P. LOCHNER,
Associated Press Foreisn Correspondent.
BERLIN, May 6.-Reports of quiet
German soundings in the direction
of Soviet Russia reached trained
Berlin observers tonight while the
worlds attention remained fixed
closely on the Free City of Danzig
and Poland.
Indications that German strategy
pointed to a prebiscite in Danzig to
decide whether it should return to
Germany meanwhile were the object
Of diplomatic preoccupation.
1t was believed that German pro-
posal for such plebiscite, in which
q vote to return to Germany was
regarded as a foregone conclusion,
had been taken by Foreign Minister
Joachim Won Ribbentrop to Milan
for his conference with Italian For
eign Minister Count Galeazzo Ciano.
Danzig Nazis See Hitler.
Won Ribbentrop conferred with
Reichsfuehrer Hitler in his Bavarian
mountain retreat yesterday for six
hours and it was admitted officially
today that Albert Forster, Nazi dis
trict leader in Danzig, and Arthur
Greiser, president of the Danzig Sem
ate, were with the Fuehrer at the
same time.
Officials also admitted that MSgr.
Cesare Orsenigo. papal nuncio in
Germany, was with the Fuehrer yes
terday, but they intimated his mis-
sion was concerned with Catholic
matters rather than international
political events. ,.........
ParadoXical as 1t may seem, lndl-
cations were increasing that pointed
to the possibility that Joseph Stain
and Adolf Hitler might yet, figu-
ratively speaking, shake hands and
make up. Much water will have to
flow over the dam, however, before
this could be achieved
The following facts, however,
have been noted:
l. Hitler, in his Reichstag speech
OF January 30, commemorating six
years of Nazi rule, said almost moth
ing about Soviet Russia.
2. On either April "a or Is Rus
0ldll 1AlllDdSSdOOl olChCJ MCl ChdlO11
and the Counselor of the Russian
Embassy, Sergei Astachoff, spent
more than an hour comforting in the
foreign Office with Secretary of
State Baron Ernst Won WeizSaecker.
3. Merekaloff then left for Mos
COW. He was there when Maxim
Litvinof resigned as commissar of
foreign affairs, an event which the
Ambassador was reported to have
advised Germany about five days in
advance.
f. Soviet Russia received no at
tention in Hitler's Reichstag speech
of April % in which he replied to
President Roosevelt.
S. Persistent but uncomfortable
rumors in Berlin have it that Field
Marshal Hermann Wilhelm Goe-
ring, who has gone to San Reno,
Italy, "for short stay" will meet
Boris Stein, Russian Ambassador
to Rome. Stein is one of the men
stated to have been working con-
sistently for rapprochement be-
tween the Soviet Union and Ger
many.
New Envoy to Russia Seen.
8. Speculation in German off,
cialdom as to who might succeed
Count Friedrich Werner Won der
Schulenberg, Germanys Ambassa-
dor to Moscow, already is so con-
crete that there is unanimity of
opinion the post will be offered, if
and when rapprochement ma
terializes, to retired Gen. Baron
Kurt Won Hammerstein- -Equord.
7. Like mushrooms overnight
growth. the capital has become filled
with rumors about negotiations
with Russia.
Gen. Won Hammerstein Equord
was chief of staff of the army when
Hitler took over power and was one
Of the chief promoters of Russian
German friendship, both during the
pre-Hitler republic and the early
days of Nazi-ism. He had differences
of opinion with the Fuehrer and
resigned in December, 1888.
Maneuver or Real RapprOchement?
The question presented to foreign
observers is:
Is all this talk concerning Russia
preliminary to q real Russian-Ger-
man rapprochement or is it a
shrewd, calculated drive to throw
monkey wrenches into the diplo-
matte machinery now engaged in an