Imperial Valley Press

GERMAN LYNCHINGS

(Santa Monica Outlook)

It is not surprising to read that the Berlin correspondent of a Swedish paper has reported several instances of American fliers being lynched by angry mobs after their forced descent onto German soil. It is not surprising, because only a short time ago the master mind of German propaganda, Herr Doktor Goebbels, published an inflammatory article in the German press which called upon the German people to lynch any allied aviators who fell into their hands.

Goebbels declared that "it doesn't seem possible for us any more to interpose German police and military against the German people when they are treating child killers as they deserve." He repeated his earlier lies that American and British fliers machine gun children on their way to school and people on their way to church, in short that they do all the things nazi fliers did to the peoples of Europe in the first years of the war. An official invitation to lynch captive allied airmen was the climax to his poison.

The German people have always had great respect for the military code which guarantees decent treatment to uniformed prisoners of war. Whatever their resentment against the bombing of their cities, they would not think of lynching helpless allied prisoners unless Goebbels incited them to it. The responsibility for any mistreatment of allied airmen in Germany is therefore directly on Goebbels and his chief.

Apparently this infamous creature is not satisfied with his prospects of being tried and hanged by the Russians. He wants the allies to be in on it, too. The American air force should put in at once for priority rights to this hanging.

Note: The above applies only as long as the war produces a scarcity of materials. After the war I'll be around with my tongue hanging out, and loose at both ends, as usual.