WHOLESALE ARRESTS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 November 1939, Page 5

WHOLESALE ARRESTS

IN CZECH PROTECTORATE TOTAL PUT AS HIGH AS 50,000 EIGHT THOUSAND STUDENTS TAKEN TO GERMANY. FEROCIOUS NAZI METHODS. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyrigh' LONDON. November 19. The total of arrests as a result ol' the Czech student riots is now said in some quarters to lie as high as '>(),()()(). The Belgrade correspondent of “The 'rimes" said yesterday that a high Czech

official informed neutral journalists in Prague that lhe Germans in the past -IS hours have executed 120 students and transported 8000 to Germany. Many sources confirm the ruthlessness of the German reprisals which began on October 28, the anniversary of the Czech independence. The State Secretary. Hermann Frank, led hooligans through the street carrying whips, revolvers, and rifles, and they attacked all persons, standing or running. Jan Oplethal, aged 22. a medical student, was fatally wounded with six revolver shots. His funeral was the most important of the daily demonstrations, and was marked by a thousand fellowstudents assembling under flare lights, making defiant speeches, singing Czech and Slovak anthems, and crying: "Death to the murderers! Long live liberty!" Armed German civilians forced unarmed Czech police towards the crowd, provoking skirmishes. Sudeten Germans who have been instructed in street fighting and enlisted as special constables are organised for revengeful oppression.

NEUTRAL COMMENT BRUTAL MEASURES THAT WILL FAIL. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY. November 19. Such extracts from the neutral Press relating to Nazi action in Czechoslovakia during the last few days as have so far reached London indicate that the extreme severity of the measures reported to have been taken to repress expressions of nationalist sentiment and popular discontent has incurred the disapproval of neutral observers. The Netherlands newspaper “Maasbade" argues that brutal measures never have practical results, while the Danish “Politiken” finds it surprising that a regime that has built itself up on the thesis of the strength of national bonds should underestimate the strength of .national feeling in another case.

REVOLT SPREADS ARRESTS IN MANY AREAS. (Received This Day, 10.15 a.m.) PARIS, November 20. Reports from the Czech frontier indicate that the Prague revolt spread to many towns and villages and that more people are being arrested and sent to the Buchenwald Concentration Camp.