MORALE LOW

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 May 1942, Page 4

MORALE LOW

PRIVATIONS OF ITALIAN PEOPLE NAZI YOKE RESENTED. GESTAPO AGENTS KEEP ORDER. SYDNEY, May 21. Fiardships, privations, and disillusionment are rising within Germany and Italy, according to American correspondents who have just left those countries, says the New York correspondent of the Sydney “Daily Telegraph.” A number of American newspapermen from Axis countries have reached Lisbon (Portugal) on their Sway home under a diplomatic exchange arrangement between the United States and Axis Powers. Richard Massock, American Associated Press correspondent, on his way back from Rome, stresses the feelings of bitterness and hopelessness in Italy. “The Italian people, imbued with defeatism, are fighting the war at home more than on the world front,” he says. “Mussolini dealt a stunning blow to this internal, front when he declared an unpopular war on the United States. DEEP-ROOTED HATRED. “The Italians’ deep-rooted hatred of the Germans is becoming more intensified as the Nazis tighten their stranglehold on the country. In contrast with the friendship between the Italians and the Allies in the last war, there is no fraternising between Italians and Germans in this conflict. “But the Germans are keeping the Italians in line with the Nazi programme through a horde of Gestapo agents. The Germans hold key administration posts, and there is a constant influx of picked, specialised military men, particularly airmen and submarine sailors. “This virtual occupation force ofGermans, estimated at 200,000 men, is tightening its control of Italy. As things stand, Italy will last out' this year, possibly another. But suffering from cold and malnutrition will increase, and next winter may begin the toll of deaths.” GERMAN LIFE GRIM. Frederick Oechsner, United Press correspondent, from Berlin, says: “Life daily grows more grim and miserable in Germany. The winter on the Russian front was disastrous, as the overflow of wounded soldiers from all available hospitals and hotels to private homes bears witness. “The deterioration in economic conditions is visible on all sides. Nerves have been strained by heavy British bombing of German towns. Yet the capacity of the average German to endure hardship and sacrifice has not yet reached breaking point. “The organisation of an effective anti-Nazi movement is still impossible. But I have evidence that there is a powerful group, reaching high up in some quarters, ready to take over rule in Germany ‘if anything should happen to Hille?.’ ” RULE BY FIRING SQUAD. Glen Stadler another United Press correspondent, from Berlin, writes: “Hitler’s firing squads have killed nearly 400,000 Europeans in the process of looting conquered areas. The wholesale use of firing squads proves that Hitler’s new order in Europe is ■ not functioning as desired. “It is estimated that the Nazis executed 87,500 in Poland, 5000 in Yugoslavia, 3000 in Czecho-Slovakia, 1500 in France and Belgium, 10 in Norway, 150 in Greece. In Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania the killing of Jews amounted to an open hunt. Upward of 100,000 met their death in these Baltic States, and more than double that number were executed in western Russian.” Alvin Steinkopf, Associated Press correspondent, from Berlin, says that black-marketing flourishes in Germany despite the death penalty for blaclt market operators. He says it is difficult to get toothpaste, shoelaces, buttons, thread, paper dustcloths, floor wax, typewriter ribbons, photographic film, and hundreds of other items not considered strictly essential.