SERIOUS DECLINE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 May 1943, Page 4

SERIOUS DECLINE

0 INDICATED IN GERMAN MORALE UNEASY QUESTIONS BEING ASKED. WARNINGS & PRECAUTIONS. (By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) (Received This Day, 11.15 a.m.) LONDON, May 27. Reuter's Zurich correspondent says that as an invasion precaution, French industrial districts are being warned to keep an emergency water supply, suf-' flcient for 48 hours. People are told also to keep drinking water in a hermetically sealed container. The Swiss Telegraph Agency reports that an evacuation of part of the French Mediterranean coast has already begun, though it has not been officially ordered. From various sources on the Continent come reports which, taken together, unquestionably show that recent air raids, following on the military disaster in Africa, are having deep psychological consequences in Germany. The “Daily Telegraph’s” Zurich correspondent reports that a wave of defeatism has spread through the Nazi Party ranks. “There has been much discontent and mounting criticism since the recent war developments,” he adds.

The Berlin correspondent of the Basle “National Zeitung” reports: “Three questions which the people of Germany are asking constantly today are: ‘How long can the war last.’ ‘When will the Luftwaffe be able to make appropriate reprisal raids on Britain?’ ‘Can food rations now be considered to be at their lowest level Everyone is now anxiously saying ‘I only hope there will be no defeat on the Eastern front?’ The “Manchester Guardian's” special correspondent writes: “At the moment it would seem that moral pressure and appeals to the individual’s sense of duty are being relied on to arrest what is unmistakably a decline in German morale. The authorities may hope that warnings will be sufficient. The Black Guards and the Gestapo, which already have the general populace firmly clutched, are bound sooner or later to extend disciplinary control over the Nazi Party itself.” EVACUATION MEASURES

IN SARDINIA AND SICILY. (Received This Day, 11.5 a.m.) LONDON, May 27. The Italians are making preparations to blow up port installations and jetties at Cagliari, reports the Moscow Tass Agency. Evacuees from Sardinia are daily arriving at Naples. The evacuation of Sicily where the Germans are in charge, is also proceeding rapidly. The New York radio says Italian workers in Sardinian and Sicilian war factories have been placed under martial law.