I WAS very interested to read the article by Hamish MacPherson, apparently ending once and for all the conspiracy theories surrounding the Deputy Fuhrer of Nazi Germany, Rudolf Hess, (DNA test disproves Hess ‘double’ theory, January 23).

There are a few points listed in the article as facts which do not bear scrutiny.

Firstly, it is stated that the Duke of Hamilton was summoned to meet Hess on the night of his capture, and, upon meeting with him, he (Hess) told him that he was really Rudolf Hess and not “Alfred Horn”, the name he had used so far. Upon being made aware of this it is alleged that the Duke then contacted  Churchill.

READ MORE: DNA test disproves Rudolf Hess ‘double’ story 30 years after death

This does not stand up; the Duke of Hamilton had been part of a British delegation to the 1936 Olympics in Berlin where he was in the same room as Hess and would certainly, as a result of these occasions, not have required “Horn” to tell him who he really was. At the time of the 1936 visit to Germany, Hamilton was, of course, the Marquis of Clydesdale and MP for East Renfrewshire.

The Duke was indeed at that time a serving RAF officer, but more to the point, was head of the RAF in Scotland. It is also stated that “Hess was deemed to be mentally ill and locked up for the duration of the war”. This was not the case; the British Government resolutely maintained that Hess was not mentally incapacitated; if they had stated publicly that this was the case, they would have been required to repatriate him to Germany, under the rules governing international relations at the time.

During my following of the Hess affair, over quite a long number of years, I have never been aware of a suggestion that the real Hess had been assassinated by Himmler prior to the “Hess” flight to Scotland, and that the flight was carried out by a doppelganger.

There is a large amount of evidence, real and circumstantial, that a doppelganger was involved. Strong amongst that is the fact that the scars of Hess’s First World War wounds could not be found by doctors who examined him during his long years in Spandau prison.

Then there is the case of the crash in Sutherland in 1942 which killed the Duke of Kent. This has been linked to the Hess case for many years; when the crash was being cleared from the Scottish hills, there appeared to be one body too many. Again there are a whole list of points which are unexplained. It has been suggested that this could have been the “real” Rudolf Hess, and that the flight was actually going to Sweden and not Iceland as publicly stated.

Over many years there has been a huge amount of obfuscation and plain unhelpful behaviour from the British Government establishment.

Some files covering the machinations of the whole affair since it started in 1942 have been withheld. How can the withholding of files which are possibly more than 70 years old affect “the public interest”? Unless of course they contain information which would be seriously embarrassing for those in power when this was all going on! Some are reputed to be now in the Royal Archives at Windsor Castle where they cannot be accessed. Release of this withheld information could really clear up all these conspiracy theories once and for all.

Meantime we have to take this new statement with a "pinch of salt"! There is no information as to where this smear of blood came from. Where has it been all these years?

At the end of the day the proper solution to all this would be for the remains of “Spandau Prisoner No 7” to be tested for DNA; under of course very strictly internationally controlled conditions.

George M Mitchell
Dunblane