ACTIVITIES IN S.E. EUROPE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 15 October 1942, Page 5

ACTIVITIES IN S.E. EUROPE

SABOTAGE AND AMBUSHES WOMEN TAKE PROMINENT PART (Hoc. 11.20 a.in.) London, Oct. 14, A high price is offered lor the capture of the man who lired two shots at the Slovak President. M. Tiso, when he was giving the Nazi salute. A bullet pierced M. Tiso’s sleeve. Many arrests were made but the assailant has not yet been found, says a dispatch from the German frontier. Hungarians arrested 20 hostages and imposed a fine of 0000 pengos on the tiny Slovak town of Movesamki after the stoning of a Hungarian officer. Police fired on the demonstrators, but the culprits escaped. Reports from Turkey reveal mat guerrillas are waging vigorous campaigns in the north of Greece, Albania and Yugoslavia. Eighty-four Italians were killed and GO wounded in a recent fierce battle south of Macedonia. Other guerrillas operating in the region of Castoria, Fiorina and Koritza have joined up with General Mikailovitch’s Yugoslav natriots. Their combined hands are

patriots. Their combined bands are continually inflicting losses on Germans and Italians. FATE OF TRAITORS The Greeks are mercilessly dealing with traitors and those collaborating with the occupying forces. Many of these are shot and their bodies nailed to trees under notices announcing the same fate for all who betray their country. Greek circles in London say 5000 Greeks are fighting in Bulgarianoccupied Macedonia and 2000 to 3000 in Crete. Albanians are increasingly hostile to the Italians. They are staging demonstrations in towns and villages, frequently under the leadership of women, and committing sabotage throughout the country. Albanians in the oilfields region of Kuschova attacked Italian guards and forced the Italians to retreat leaving 110 dead. Guerrillas drove the Italians out of the Skrapar region in south Albania, inflicting considerable casualties. HEAVY ITALIAN CASUALTIES Yugoslav circles in Ankara reveal that Yugoslavs in six weeks to the end of August killed 6000 members of Italian armoured divisions, wounded 9000 and captured heavy artillery. Twenty per cent, of the guerrillas are women. A German military court ordered the execution of five persons for anti-German activity against the established order in Bohemia and Moravia. The Moscow radio reports that a German supply train of 27 trucks carrying tanks to the Russian front was derailed and completely wrecked between Prague and Benesov. TREATMENT OF RUSSIAN PRISONERS It is officially stated in Moscow that Russian war prisoners in the Pskov camp who were infected with typhus were buried alive. Russians work 16 hours daily and are fed on broth from rotten vegetables. Those who fall exhausted are shot. CROPS SET AFIRE The number of fires in crops in France is steadily increasing, mostly in occupied France. The authorities have taken measure to prevent the extension of sabotage. Vichy radio reports a fire at Bourgenbresse in which a large stock of ! timber was destroyed. Paris radio called for a violent and i brutal clean-up of the black market j in France, declaring that steps would be taken “against men occupying high posts. Traffic in false coupons and ration books caused the rationing system to go to pieces. There is organised sabotage wheih is actually sabotage of policy.” COMMUNISTS SENTENCED The radio blamed the Jews and advocated hanging. Berlin radio stated that a ringleader and 17 Communists were sentenced at Rennes for distributing leaflets and sent to gaol for seven years. An independent news agency reported that the Germans fined Ghent £2BOO and arrested 50 hostages qs the result of a bomb explosion in a German billet.—P.A.