GERMAN FEARS

Waikato Times, Volume 128, Issue 21365, 8 March 1941, Page 9

GERMAN FEARS

DANGER TO COASTLINE BRITAIN’S ISLAND RAID MANHANDLING THE NAZIS (omclal Wireless) (Received March 8, 11 a.m.) RUGBY, March 7 The Times describes the raid on Lofoten as a quick and vivid stroke, a perfect specimen of its kind. The Daily Telegraph and the Manchester Guardian find the true measure of the importance of the efficiently-executed operation in the excitement it has caused in Berlin. The Guardian says: “The Nazis sent us the news first, saying that we had done something militarily senseless. Then they went on to make far more excited comment than anything so negligible justified. Germany revealed her true estimate of the Lofoten adventure, her real fears, when in a wireless tirade she said that the British were seeking to impress remote and ignorant peoples. The raid had obviously brought home to Germany the vast extent of the coast which she had to defend.” The same point was taken up by the Daily Express, which said: “What happened on the coast of Norway can happen anywhere along the 3000-mile European coastline which Germany seized last year, and everywhere we choose to go we shall be welcomed by the inhabitants because we come to manhandle the Nazis.” RETALIATION BY GERMANS ARREST OF NORWEGIANS SERVICE WITH BRITAIN (United Press Assn.—Lime. Tel. copyright) (Received March 8. 11.15 a.m.) LONDON. March 7 It has been decreed by the Germans that all property belonging to the families on Lofoten Island wnich voluntarily followed Britons or helped during the raid shall be burnt and the helpers arrested. One Norwegian has already been shot for recalcitrance. The population has been fined £SOOO, and the municipality has been ordered to maintain the families of those who have gone to England as prisoners. The King may receive the Norwegian patriots whose registration for some form of service will begin immediately. All are described as keen as mustard. Most of the younger men want to join the Royal Air Force and return to Norway and bomb the Germans. Many of the arrivals, who are fishermen and sailors, are likely to join the Norwegian vessels serving with the British Merchant Navy. The womenfolk are as anxious as the men to serve the Allied cause.

EXERCISES IN MALAYA BRITISH FORCES ACTIVE CIVIL SERVICES PARTICIPATE United Press Assn. —Elec. Tel. copyrighti LONDON, March 7 The British forces in Malaya have :>egun exercises under the direction )f Air-Chief Marshal Sir Robert 3rooke-Popham, British Commander-n-Chief in the Far East. Civil defence services and Government departments are also joining in hese exercises. ;onnel of over 25,000.” Mr Massey said the Empire air :raining scheme was six months ihead of its programme of accomDlishment. At the end of December twice as many pilots had graduated as had been expected. Expansion in Output Mr Harry Carmichael, Directorgeneral of Munitions in Canada, in i broadcast, said Canada, by the ind of 1942, would be manufacturing 47,000 automatic guns a year, in:ludmg 50,000 machine-guns. Two of he most modern types of anti-air-raft guns would be in production by )ctober.