Wairarapa Times-Age FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 1940. IDEALS OF BRIGANDAGE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 April 1940, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 1940. IDEALS OF BRIGANDAGE

ADDRESSING a meeting of the Hitler Air Youth one of v 4. fhino'Q- “Onr enemies should note that inc VhTw/d ( " »nd iT b weakened but immeasurably st™.-toned s ” A other message yesterday gave part.eulars stiengtnenen us. , Goprillo . f or the ruthless employto Um benedt of Germany With their accompanying details ot the seizure ol he lotah agricultural output (already cut (lp p O rta transfer of the best farming areas to Russia) and the 1 Un of millions of Poles to Germany as trial workers these orders are regarded m I ans, and j r u (l‘y indeed be regarded anywhere, as sentene.ng a ma.tor.ty of Poles to starvation. In themselves, these orders, and the hideous.self-satisfac-tion with which Goering has declared that his eoiuitryhas hce } strengthened Ymeasuto.ly by “to blow « dead Poland riTYoS’^dt in deeds "X °!m be no peace and no security in the world until Goering and the "aU of perverted criminals of which he is an out“landing member have been overthrown and made powerless for further harm. The magnitude and black enormity of the crimes the Nazi iran-sters have committed and are committing in 1. oland and bi other subjugated territories are only beginning to be understood clear!}-/ As Mr Winston Churchill said the other dai, Poland is an. ancient State ’ which in a few weeks was dashed out of civilised existence to women of uVrival forms of withering and blasting tyrdnny. Of what has happened on the German side of the new frontier the Polish Government in. France has given a,n account in a White Rook which accuses Germany of attempting deliberately to murder the Polish Fatherlanl. The White Book declares,, according to a cablegram, ihnt Nazi statistics reveal that the population of German-occupied Poland had fallen by 4,000,000 by January lEi last. of 1 604 321 prisoners and workmen depoited to Geim. y 2,500,000’ who are believed to have died from war executions, hunger and cold. * Tn the conditions to which Goering refers so jubilantly and which he is intent on doing so much to intensify, a. total 01 2 500 000 victims murdered in Poland no doubt will speedilt mount apace. Though the ultimate depths of tragedy have, been reserved for Poland, the state of affairs ruling in other German-occupied territories provides m itself, an amply eonvineing demonstration of the desolating horrors of Nazi m e. The social and economic situation of the Czech lands was summed up the. other day by the former President of Czechoslovakia, Dr Benes, as one in which the Czech workers had been draped down even below the level of the German workers and a country lately well-organised and prosperous had been given over to “misery, impoverishment, progressive proletarianisin and complete ruin.” Not content, with cutting off Czechoslovakia’s foreign trade and seizing her gold and currency reserves, the Nazis embarked from the outset of their occupation upon a wholesale plunder of Czech private property. The master move in this policy of brio‘anda°e was a decision that the economic life of the Czech lands must be “Aryanised.” Any Czechoslovak enterprise where at least one Jew could be found was subject, as a correspondent of the “Manchester Guardian” explained recently, to “Aryanisation,” which in practice meant passing either partly or entirely under German management. In Czechoslovakia (the correspondent added) no distinction had ever been made between the Jews and non-Jews, so that naturally one Jew was to be found almost everywhere. Thus the whole economic resources of the country were at once seized by the Germans. In Slovakia, mainly an agricultural country with only little industry, “Aryanisation” has not had the same effect. But even there, despite the nominal independence of the Slovak State, there are German “supervisors” in every important enterprise In Poland the same methods are# applied, only with fewer legal scruples. All this was not enough. The Germans, obviously unsure that their domination would last, have started ruthless exploitation of the natural riches of the seized countries. Tens and hundreds of square miles of forest are. being cut down throughout the “living space” for shipment to Germany. (One remembeis that in 1918 trainloads of Ukrainian soil were sent away to Germany). In Czechoslovakia some factories have been dismantled and transplanted to German territory. In facts like these, as has been said, the issues raised in the war are written plainly for all to read. The task by which Hie Allies are faced is that of making an end of a colossal carnival of crime which already has brought death, misery and ruin to millions of innocent victims and threatens with a similar fate the people of all free nations.