SPIRIT OF REVOLT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 August 1941, Page 5

SPIRIT OF REVOLT

RISING IN OCCUPIED EUROPE PROBLEM FOR THE NAZIS. HUGE DEMAND ON MANPOWER. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, August 2. News reaching London from various sources and areas of the Germanoccupied territory in Europe suggests that anti-Nazi activities of the people in these countries are on the increase. The vast scale of the war against Russia must have compelled Germany to mobilise the largest forces in her power for the Eastern Front, and it is considered here as certain that the German forces in the occupied territory must have been reduced to the limit that the Nazi authorities deemed safe. It is considered doubtful, indeed, if Germany possesses manpower sufficiently adequate to police the whole of occupied Europe and at the same time conduct a full-scale war against Russia. For instance, the news that General Liszt has been sent from the Russian front to Athens has confirmed the impression that the Germans are seriously worried about the situation in the Balkans and that they doubt the ability of their satellites to perform properly the duties of gendarmes in the conquered countries.

Reports agree that Yugoslavia, Greece and even Bulgaria are seething with unrest. Yugoslav rebel bands are increasingly active in committing sabotage, and it is reported that the Germans have been forced to send 25,000 men back into the country to maintain order.

It is reported that a fight developed between German marines and civilians in the port of Aalesunnd, Norway, when Norwegians tried to prevent the deportation of about 70 hostages who had been collected from the city and its environs and were to be ,taken away in a guarded steamer at a secret time.

The latest issues of the illegal Norwegian newspaper, “Det Frif Norge,” have been printed and distributed in amazingly large editions, and it is reported that no Norwegian newspaper has ever attained a higher circulation. The paper appears regularly, and attempts by the Gestapo to stop it have been completely fruitless. In spite of repeated raids on printers in Oslo and observation of persons believed to be connected with “Det Frif Norge,” the paper is still appearing without interruption. It has an anonymous editor and collaborators of a high standard. Today's announcement by the Reich Commissioner for the occupied Norwegian territory that a state of emergency exists throughout Norway will, therefore, cause no surprise.