WAR TOPICS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 3, Issue 257, 13 January 1941, Page 2

WAR TOPICS

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1666 AND ALL THAT

Tii September, 16(5G, the Great Eire of London burned for three days and .consumed 400 streets and 13/200 houses. On the evening of December 29, IfJ4O,l f J4O, Herr Killer's air force tried to repeat the dose. It failed.

The fireworks that fizzled out is the city's name for Hitler's command performance. As Mr Pepys watched its predecessor he saw "more ' and more in corners, and -upon steeples between churches, and the houses, the spread of the liorrid,, malicious, bloody flame." The watchers of 1940 did not stop to gaze. Armed with soil scooped from churchyards, an army of house holders backed up the work of the lire services. Professionals and amateurs alike felt ail square with Hitler when morning showed that they had foiled his plan.

"Roll out the Fire Hose'" runs our new wording to the song hit of 1940. "'Pour on. Water! Pour on Water!" echoes one of London's older songsj and true to tradition London's fire brigade and auxiliary fire service went into action in a. way that made its citizens proud. "At dawn this morning I looked for flagging energy or fatigue and found none," said the Lord Mayor, and the city workers arriving in his wake, set to'with equal vigour to swill out desks and wring out ledgers in the knowledge that a formidable enemy had been downed.

"Jump to it!" was. the shout as the shower of incendiaries crackled down. Saucepan, tin hat, bucket— any scoop will do a newlyfallen bomb. "Turn that dustbin on to it," shouted a friendly voice, and London's garbage went to it just as potently as the more orthodox sand. Overheard: "I told them there was one of the top of their cinema and they were up the side like lamplighters. "The Duke of Wellington has lost his left hand, but not hi. c / conquering look." "We don't know who he was. Pie put out four and disappeared before we could thank ! him." Time Exposure. " "It was midnight when I went on to the roof and instinctively at the top of the sooty ladder I looked at the dirt on my hands—l could see it plainly, it was as light as day. Billows of pink and black smoke threw the nearby buildings into silhouette and parted now and again to reveal the cross of St. Pauls fiery with reflected light. "1! went up again at dawn and it was quite dark. The blaze was out" Phoenix from, the Flames. Comparison with 1666 is. tempting because the two fires blazed in the same small area. But it is misleading if it conveys the impression that the city is for the second time a vista of charred remains. • This time the sears are intermittent. Curiously close to the smouldering ruins, shops stand with plateglass polished and windows dressed. London has lost some precious buildings, but its citizens are a resilient people. They rebuilt their Guildhall and their churches three hundred years ago and what has been done once can be done again. "Fall in, the firebomb fighters,." .thundered Mr Herbert Mbrrison on the last night of the old year, and almost before he had finished speaking, volunteers were round at the wardens' posts reporting for duty. Every action, says the first law of physics, has its immediate and opposite reaction, and next time Hitler orders a bonfire you won't be able to see oair roof for spotters. Norway for the Norwegians. The story of Norway to-day is the story of a heroic people fighting without weapons against an enemy domination of the country through armed force and holding all the key positions in. the government. In the face of these odds the Norwegians ■are carrying on the fight systematically and with discipline undeterred by punishment or persuasion, turning, a deaf ear to noisy

propaganda, preparing only for the day when the fight shall be won and the invader pushed back into the sea. Hold Together. Since a police ban was announced on December 7 which forbade the wearing of coins and emblems of King Ha a ken's head, the Norwegians have found a new way to show their loyalty. An outbreak of paperclips has mysteriously occurred in Oslo, worn in the buttonhole, the hat or the lapel. Everybody knows the meaning of this innocent decoration —"Hold together" . —a subtlety so much resented by the authorities that Avholesale arrests, of paperclips owners has been threatened. ("Social Demokraten" December 7, 1940). A Dangerous Mood. Humour is a dangerous weapon to use against the Prussian, and it has been widely used in Norway. But as months have passed the humour has become more bitter with the shame and anger which Norwegians feel against Quisling wit?) his efforts to serve Germany and his 'Government' parly, .-which has none of the people behind' it. Dealing with the Quislings. Norwegian opposition is formidable and successful. The "Helsingen Sanomat"' (Finland), November 20, reports that "In large towns per petual attempts are made to murder members of the National Samling. The authorities are discovering to their increasing anger that members' property is being systematically destroyed. During the blackout Quislingites in Oslo and other places go in terror of their lives." 1 At Aalesund the entire population is forbidden to go out after dark as a punishment for demonstrating at a meeting where the local police remained passive. In spite of arrests, imprisonments? and the new concentration camps, the demonstrations continue while large scale acts of sabotage are planned and carried out. Landslides. On November 26 a series of welldirected landslides sent hundreds of tons of earth and rocks on to the highroad and main railway line between Oslo md Bergen. The line was wrecked in ten places. The German authorities, hurriedly proclaiming law in the district, made wholesale arrests. Hardly less hurriedly came a statement from Dir. Goebbels: "Autumn storms often cause earth tremors, and special measures have to be taken to protect the railways." (German radio to France, December 6). However, as the Swedish Press of November 22 remarks,, it was an inconvenient storm which caused all the landslides to happen simultaneously and just where they could cause the greatest damage. Perhaps the last word in the "Landslide saga" comes from the Norwegian Press of December 23, commenting on Goebbels" visit to Norway: "Dr. Goebbels has knowledge and he has belief Hp can not only jnove mountains, but he knows why and where they are to be moved." Passive Disloyalty. Even harder to bear than active sabotage is the obstinate passive resistance which the Germans meet at every turn. The Nazi paper "Fritt Volk" complains bitterly on November 7 of the trade unions. "The prohibition for trade unions to engage in party politics does not mean that they are forbidden to join the National Samling collectively. The new Government's patience has reached its limit." On November 8 the same paper tries a touch of pathos: "The worst sabotage is hiding one's talent. Where are the eloquent professors of history, the speakers and writers, tbr> talented journalists who formerly communicated enthusiasm to the public? What has become of them? They are still on the spot, but they have suddenly become silent." By November 13 appeals were done with. The National Zeitung of Basle reported that: "All officials of the . entire administrative district of . Brfi.wihn hav", been dismissed for refusing to carry out instructions." '