HUMAN LIVES

Evening Star, Issue 24333, 23 October 1942, Page 3

HUMAN LIVES

GERMANY'S PRINCIPAL IMPORT SLAVE LABOUR FOR FACTORIES LONDON, October 21. In liis. latest appeal to French workers to volunteer for work in German war lactones, M. Laval revealed that every factory in France will be levied to provide workers. He has made an agreement with Germany, he said, to provide 100,000 workers in addition to the 50,000 who had already volunteered. If these 100,000 workers were obtained the wives of French prisoners in Germany would be allowed to join their husbands and work beside them. London comment on M. Laval’s speech is scathing. “ Whining ” and “ crawling ’ are typical adjectives. The ‘ Evening Standard’s ’ comment on M. Laval’s statement that French wives who are willing to go to Germany may work near their imprisoned menfolk is: “ The incident is without parallel in the history of great nations. It belongs to the record of a dope pedlar and promoter of white slave traific.” Pointing out that Germany’s principal import at present is not food arms, but human beings, the ‘ Financial News asks: “ Can Germany solve the problem of making slave labour pay ? No other nation in history has ever been able to solve it, but no other slave-own-ing State has combined so high a degree of ruthlessness with extreme efficiency. The results of this gigantic experiment will determine to a largo degree the result of the race now going on between the Allies and Axis production machines to secure the lead in arms output. Thus it will have a vitally important influence on the war.” The paper adds: “ The fact that the demands on Vichy and Denmark have received much publicity, while little or nothing has been heard of similar demands on other Continental countries, does not mean that none have been made.”

NAZIS IN U.S.A.

BUND LEADERS SENTENCED NEW YORK, October 21. Twenty-four German-American Bund leaders were sentenced to five years in gaol for conspiracy to evade the draft law. The prosecutor said the Bund was the most militant “ fifth column ” group in America and was working solely’ for a third Reich and a potential school of saboteurs. These men were still Germans and still Nazis, and they boasted in gaol that the trial'meant nothing to them because their .liberation would come when Hitler took possession of the States.

PACIFIC WAR COUNCIL WASHINGTON October 21. After a meeting of the Pacific War Council in Washington Lord Halifax said President Roosevelt gave the council , a full factual review and analysis of the situation in the Solomons. He also surveyed war production in September and October, which was promising and encouraging. Lord Halifax added that many developments were occurring.

Mr Walter Nash said there was nothing to add to the Press reports on the Solomons. Production was coming along splendidly, and the figures concerning production were the most promising thing at to-day’s meeting.

ONTARIO PREMIER RESIGNS TORONTO, October 21. The Premier, Mr Mitchell Hepburn, who is an outspoken critic of the Mackenzie King Government and the Canadian war effort, Las resigned as head of the Ontario Liberal Government. The Attorney-General, Mr Gordon Conant, was immediately sworn in as Premier. Mr Hepburn said he was regaining the portfolio of Provincial Treasurer for a short time, after which he was retiring from public life.

DECORATIONS FOR N.Z, AIRMEN

. LONDON, October 21. The Order of the Crown of Yugoslavia has been awarded to Flying-offi-cers S. J. Madill, of Auckland, and J. A. Henry Smith, both of the R.N.Z.A.F. The. Yugoslav Government in London stated that no details were at present available of the exploits for which the awards were given.

FRENCH GENERALS DISMISSED LONDON; October 21. The French generals Frere and Picquendar have been. dismissed because they opposed M. Laval's desire that the French army should be ready to oppose an Anglo-American landing in France or in French Africa.

The British United Press correspondent on the French frontier, reporting this, added that General Frere and General Picquendar arc reported to have told M. Laval that he could not rely on his generals.

AGE FDR SERVICE REDUCED TO 18 IN BRITAIN LONDON, October 22. It was announced in the House of Commons to-day by the Minister of National Service, Mr Ernest Bevin, that men of 18 were to be called up for military service in Britain. Mr Bevin said that the reduction in the age of calling up did not affect the minimum age at which men would be posted for service abroad. This would- remain at 19. While not able to go into details, he added that the latest change was duo to the requirements of the three services.

MR CHURCHILL WINS LIBEL ACTION NEW YORK, October 22. The British Prime Minister, Mr Winston Churchill, won a judgment dismissing the 1,000,000d0l libel action brought by William Griffin, publisher of the ‘ New York Inquirer,’ who is now under indictment for conspiracy to lower the morale of the armed forces. Judgment was awarded to Mr Churchill for 103dol 85c, representing the costs of defending the action. Griffin brought a suit in 1939 alleging that Mr Churchill repudiated an interview with Griffin in 1936, in which Mr Churchill, it was alleged, declared it was a mistake for the United States to enter the World War.