STORK-LEG TELEGRAPH

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 3, Issue 256, 10 January 1941, Page 8

STORK-LEG TELEGRAPH

SPREADING PROPAGANDA] NAZI NEWS CARRIERS r |he stork, to Avhom German children for centuriees have called "Bring 'uns nocli ein Kind heim," may lose faA'our Avith the Nazi generation. The long-legged, long-billed bird, Avhich is never disturbed as it nests among the German chimney pots, may find itself chased off the roost if it continues to be an agency for spreading anti-totalitarian propaganda. SeA'en thousaTul miles aAvay. i'n, South Africa, where the birds spend the Avinter, Boer farmers have taken from the storks' legs messages Avrittcn by their blood-cousins in the Netherlands who- thus avert Nazi censorship. These tell of intolerable conditions in the homeland of the Dutch, of starvation, persecution, injustice. The South African Boers, Avhose roots arc in Holland, have not been a unit in supporting the British in the democracies' battle against the totalitarian aggressors. The overrunning of the Netherlands probably changed the attitude of many. And now "stork-leg telegraph" may cause many more South Africans to realise that there are Avorse situations than being an autonomous dominion Avithin the protecting fold of the British Commomvealth.