The Southland Times MONDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1942. Germany's Labour Front

Southland Times, Issue 24890, 2 November 1942, Page 4

The Southland Times MONDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1942. Germany's Labour Front

GERMANY’S quest for slave labour has suffered a setback in France, although dark chapters in the history of the Occupation may yet have to be written before the conflict is ended. Meanwhile the Nazis are reported to have turned to Belgium. A first batch of workers, comprising bachelors between 30 and 40 years and childless married men between 20 and 40 years,” has already been taken from the Liege district. The Belgian Minister of Information, speaking in London, described the move as an “odious outrage, and that is how it must appear to the peoples of all the democracies. It seems probable, however, that the Germans would not take these steps unless they were driven by the stark necessities of their man-power situation. The treatment of the conquered countries in western Europe has always been noticeably milder than the treatment of the Czechs and the Poles, whose sufferings reveal with an ugly clarity the Nazi resolve to establish slave States beyond their eastern frontiers. It is generally believed that the comparative mildness of German rule in France, Holland and Belgium was influenced by two motives: a desire to bring the western nations into a “collaboration” sufficiently, real to facilitate the setting up of Hitler’s New Order, and the desire to avoid a dangerous unrest in territories close to Britain. The collaboration policy failed. It is only necessary to glance at the statistics of executions carried out under the infamous hostage system to realize how completely the Nazis failed to understand the minds of the conquered nations. For some time now the mask has been thrown aside. The Germans can rule only with a constant display of force. If the New Order had been more than a facade for the realities of conquest, it would not now be necessary to coerce the workers required for German industry. The story might have been different (although even that is uncertain) if the blitzkrieg had succeeded everywhere with the suddenness of the victories in France and the Low Countries. But Germany is still at war. Great forces are ranged against her, and in the occupied countries the underground newspapers are joyfully printing reports which show that the universal enemy is passing slowly to the defensive. Small wonder, then, that passive resistance is spreading, and that the Germans are compelled to throw aside all pretence in their efforts to recruit workers for their factories.