UNIVERSITIES CLOSED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 November 1939, Page 5

UNIVERSITIES CLOSED

The German official news agency states that martial law has been proclaimed in Prague and other towns in the protectorate. This does not affect German citizens. The agency also announces that the universities and high schools will be closed down for three ( years. An hour before the German agency’s announcement of the executions of students, the official spokesman of the Foreign Office in Berlin informed foreign Pressmen there was no truth in rumours about disorders in Bohemia and Moravia. Following the executions Prague became.like a dead city, with the Czechs avoiding public places and remaining indoors as far as possible. The official news agency in Berlin announced on Friday that nine Czechs had been shot and 1200 students arrested. The Czech universities had been closed. Additional Storm Troopers had arrived in Prague and severe restrictions were being placed on Czech life. A further official news agency message from Prague stated that the Germans shot three more Czechs, two of whom were police officers, allegedly for attacks on Germans. The German troops on their arrival at Prague ; demonstratively entered the city, clearly intending to overawe the populace. That the Germans believe the situation is serious is shown by the seizure of the international telephone line from Prague to Budapest. It is reported that the Black Guards have occupied various schools and have discovered a secret printing plant and illegal radio station. Students attempted to blockade their premises, but the Black Guards broke in with hatchets, arresting a professor and many students. A secret Czech radio station broadcast a message to the students: "We hear some ‘of you have been murdered, but even these bloodthirsty gangsters will not succeed in murdering all of you. You will continue your work to reopen your schools. POPULACE EXCITED Contrary to the German assertion that quietness prevails Paris radio states that the populace is most excited. A German Government spokesman yesterday stated: “All is peaceful and quiet in Prague today, ft is a mistake to assume otherwise, merely because young intellectuals and criminals attempted to. disturb the peace. We cannot tolerate such people in war lime." Explaining the Czech executions, the official news agency states: “A group of Czech intellectuals connected with Dr Benes have attempted to disturb the peace and order in the protectorate by means of large and small acts of resistance. They molested individual Germans on October 28 (the anniversary of the founding of the Czech ■Republic) and also last Wednesday.” The Budapest, correspondent of “The Times” says that, after rumours that the Russians were coming to expel the Germans, crowds poured into the streets of Tabor in South Bohemia and beat up and disarmed the German police and threw them into a river. The German authorities have announced that, the Reich treason law henceforth will be applicable to the protectorate. SERBIAN SYMPATHY LONDON. November 19. The Belgrade correspondent of the Associated Press says that Yugoslavian nolice twice dispersed hundreds of Sorbian students attemnting to demonstrate in sympathy with the Czechs.

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