Where There Is Smoke

One black, chill night in Berlin last week foreign correspondents were jounced out of their sleep by the clamorous ringing of their telephones. When each answered, he was startled to hear an official voice from the Foreign Office insist that there was no revolution in Germany, either actual or likely.

The correspondents had not seen any revolution. They had, however, heard and reported various rumors and facts indicating that all was not well within Germany.

The Facts. Ponderous shellproof bunkers, with antiaircraft, anti-tank and machine guns, have been built near Berlin's Zoo station, in the Friedrichshain workers' district, in the Lichtenberg factory area. A yawning anti-tank trench has been dug and tank barriers set up along the rear of Berlin's chief Government buildings.

Ugly machine-gun nests have been installed on the roofs of scores of Berlin buildings, including Michels silk shop, Meyer's wine store, the German Labor Front headquarters, the Karstadt warehouse. Perhaps some of this armament was intended for defense against low-flying aircraft, but Berlin had bristled with all-purpose anti-aircraft guns for more than a year.

In his speech after declaring war on the U.S., Hitler had put unusual and savage emphasis on the theme of internal dissatisfaction: "Nobody must expect to live who tries to depreciate the sacrifices made at the front. No matter under what camouflage he tries to disturb this German front or to undermine the resistance of our people or to weaken the authority of the regime or to sabotage the achievements on the home front, he shall die for it." To this, Propaganda Minister Dr. Paul Joseph Goebbels had added his own shrill, suggestive echo: "We still bear the scars from the divisions of our old party politics. Carefully and jealously we must watch that they do not reopen again. . . ."

The Rumors were clear enough, if true:

In cities all over Germany Hitler's Schutzstaffel--his carefully chosen army-size bodyguard--had commandeered buildings from which machine-gun fire could rake strategic streets. SS troops in Russia, some 100,000 strong, were said to have been recalled to central Germany.

The ghastly Russian campaign was reported to have cost Germany 1,250,000 killed and many more wounded (up to Dec. i), 5,400 tanks, 6,000 to 8,000 planes --and Hitler, who had insisted on carrying it on into the winter, was feuding with his generals. Not only was Field Marshal Walther von Brauchitsch retired but, it was said, the purge was going a lot further.

Plans for a Putsch were already said to be in the hands of high Army and Navy officials. Peace overtures to Britain had been made by the Army through a Swedish banker. The Putschists proposed that after they had ended the Nazi regime, a "liberal" Germany would stand ready to join with Britain against the threat of Russia.

Nazi Party extremists were reportedly urging the liquidation of all the "possessing" classes to get rid of the privileged people--industrialists. Junkers, et al.--who might turn against the regime if they thought it on its last legs.

For his own privy information and protection, Hitler was said to be forming a secret service even more mysterious than the most arcane Gestapo circles.

The Proof. What did all these things add up to? During the first year of the war the Allies lived in the fond hope that Germany would crack up internally. Since then all such talk has been discounted. It still needs to be discounted. All that the news from Germany proved was that there was a lot of smoke and that there might some day sooner or later be a big or little fire.

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