Evening star., 1942-08-16

By \ Special Correspondent Of The Stal
| and North American Newspaper Alliance
SOMEWHERE IN CENTRAL EU-
ROPE, July 20 (By AirmaiD On
opening their morning papers one
day last week. people in Germany
could scarcely believe their eyes
There On the front page was a pic
ture of Goering and Himmler. the
two men whose inextinguishable
hatred for each other has been pro-
verbal for more than a decade. Now
they seemed to be chatting ami
cably. Both apparently in good
humor Certainly Himmler was
What did it mean? Had they at
last become reconciled? How?
Underneath was the caption
After lengthy conference at his
headquarters, Reichsmarshal Goer-
ing conferred on Reich SS-Fuehrer
Himm,er the golden aviation medal
set in diamonds, to mark the COM
radely kinship between the Luft-
waite and the Waffen-SS." Moth
ing more! Not a word of editorial
comment. Despite the fact that this
was the highest honor Goering is
empowered to bestow.
For 10 years past, as everybody
in Germany knows, Goering and
Himmler, these two satanic mon
sters. both insatiably ambitious,
have been locked in mortal combat
to decide who should be supreme in
the Third Reich. Year by year each
has grown more powerful. But each
has been gathering strength from
different sources. Until the war be-
gan. Goering still led. So much so
that, when Hitler read the procla-
nation of war on September l, 1899,
he named Goering as his successor
should he himself meet death in the
conflict.
But since then Himmler has
gradually become more and more
powerful, as Hitler has realized that
the day is bound to come when he
will have to defend the National
Socialist regime against the broad
masses of the German people.
Himmler has worked on these fears.
For months Himmler has hardly
left the Fuehrer's side. And now, at
last, the moment has arrived to
settle, once for all, who is ultimately
to take Hitler's place. Between
Goering and Himmier, the decisive
round has begun.
Private Army of 100000.
Himmler, the creator of the black
SIS guards, has at his back a mag
nificent private army of at least
100000 men, trained to act as a
team with the precision OF clock
work, equipped with every weapon
known to military science, hardened
by experience on every battlefield,
obedient to their own code of laws,
constituting a state within state.
Behind them stands the sinister
dreaded, lawless Gestapo, ready, at a
given signal, to plunge knife into
the heart of every man in the Third
Reich suspected of hostility to the
Nazi regime
Goering, the creator and COM
mander- in-chief of the war-vital
LuftWaffe, wields the most essential
arm of the German war machine.
Every man in the service is person.
ally devoted to the marshal But
Goering also is the commissar of the
four-year plan, wherewith the Nazis
first established their strangleEold
on German industry, without whose
matchless efficiency the armies of
the Reich would lose their ability to
strike with such deadly effect. And
through his puppet, Walter Funk,
Reich economics minister and Reich
bank president, Goering also con-
trolls currency, trade and finance.
Each of these two titans, in his
own sphere, wields such enormous
power, and uses it so effectively, that
while the war lasts-Hitler could
dispense with neither. If it were
feasible, either would seize the first
opportunity to obliterate the other.
But each has become an .indis-
pensable, integral part OF the whole
Nazi system. Destroy either, and
the whole structure would collapse
Only the instinct of self f-preserva-
ton prevents, for the moment, the
enmity from becoming mortal.
There could, therefore, be no ques-
ton of the mysterious picture mean
ing reconciliation. Nor did single
word appear in the German press to
suggest that. Had Goering and
Himmler decided to bury the
hatchet, the news would have been
of paramount importance. Only one
flimsy clue seemed to betray the
explanation Of the enigma.
Printed on Inside Page.
Critical observers noted that in
Goerings own newspaper. National
Zeitung" of Essen, the picture was
very much smaller than elsewhere,
and appeared at the bottom CT an
inside page. That proves unm4s-
takably that Goering would rather
not have published the picture at
all. Supporting that idea is the fact
that, whereas Himmler, is looking
straight at Goering with a tri-
umphant smirk, Goering is staring
vacantly at nothingness. wearing a
decidedly distraught look.
But if he did not want to, why
should Goering in his own paper
publish the picture at all? Because,
in Nazi Germany, the press is con-
trolled by Goebbels-another i'm
placable enemy of Goering. BY
simple command Goebbels can COM
pei every newspaper in the Reich
to publish whatever he likes Goeb-
bels would gloat over every humili-
ation inflicted on Goering. And
Goebbels knew that this lengthy
conference at the headquarters of
Reich Marshal Goering was Hmm
ler's hour of triumph.
To protect the Third Reich