THREAT TO POLAND

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 June 1939, Page 5

THREAT TO POLAND

GERMAN CONCENTRATION IN SLOVAKIA FORTIFICATIONS BEING BUILT. USE OF CZECH MILITARY RESOURCES. By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright, LONDON. June 12. As Herr Hitler arrived in Vienna, unexpectedly 1o attend the “German Theatre Week.” German troops are reported to be concentrating at the Polish frontier in northern Slovakia. They are building fortifications. The Slovak delegation, which is negotiating for a new trade agreement, is staying in the same hotel as HenHitler. The “Daily Express" says that a drastic extension of the Nazi influence in Bohemia and Moravia is beginning. Germany requires 7000 young Czech officers to train German soldiers in the use of the Czech weapons which Germany confiscated after taking over the Protectorate. Germany is planning to equip 20 German divisions with them. Th Czechs doubt whether Germany will abolish the Protectorate and incorporate it in the Reich. They are using the Protectorate to secure foreign currency and have already asked France to prolong the preferential tariff on Czech goods. This would be dropped if the .Protectorate’s legal independence were wiped out.

The Gestapo have discovered a secret Czech station which had been broadcasting ’ anti-Nazi propaganda. The broadcasters fled after attaching a recorded announcement on a time machine to the transmission apparatus, which was erected in a forest. ACTION ADMITTED MENACING TONE TAKEN TO POLAND. IN NAZI FOREIGN OFFICE JOURNAL. BERLIN, June 13. German officials admit troop movements near the Slovak border, but they claim that these are in accordance with the German-Slovak treaty, signed in March, permitting Germany to occupy the mountainous zone between Moravia and Slovakia. The Foreign Office’s publication, “Diplomatic Political Correspondence,” fiercely attacks Poland’s unconciliatory attitude to Germany, which, it declares, is becoming more pronounced, obviously ;as a result of the British encirclement policy. It adds that insults against Germany .are a daily occurrence, and the Germans in Poland are continually oppressed. The Polish tactics toward Danzig show clearly the perilous course the Poles are steering.” RIVAL SEIZURES GESTAPO RETORT ON POLISH ACTION. RATIBOR, June 12. In retaliation for recent confiscation of German nationals’ homes in Polish Silesia, the Gestapo (German secret police) has seized the headquarters of the Polish minority in Ratibor, which have been presented to the Hitler Youth Movement. Ratibor, a town in Prussia, is near the border of Silesia, which Poland annexed from Czechoslovakia in the crisis of September, 1938. DANZIG AGITATION JOINT DEMONSTRATION BY STORM TROOPERS. DANZIG. June 12. The weekend celebrations wound up with a parade of 2000 Danzig StormTroopers and 6000 from East Prussia. This is the. first time the latter have exercised in Danzig. The joint display obviously was intended as a demonstration against Poland.