This Happened Last Week

New Zealand Listener, Volume 1, Issue 15, 6 October 1939, Page 2

This Happened Last Week

Beginning with this issue "The Listener" will summarise briefly each week the progress of the war. Constant repetition of official bulletins, rumours, predictions and "wishes" makes the daily news a little confusing. An outline of the central facts sifted from the general mass of news, will enable readers to follow more easily the actual progress of events

T the time of going to press Poland is in the hands of German and Russian forces. Broadcasting Stations at Warsaw ceased to function on September 27, and the city surrendered. Many famous buildings, such as the Cathedral of St. John, dating from the thirteenth century, and the Royal Castle, containing many of Poland’s finest art treasures, have been destroyed. Herr Hitler has announced the end of the Polish campaign. German troops are being moved to the Western front. Germany claims to have captured 450,000 men and 1,200 guns; Russia claims 120,000 men, 380. guns, and 1,400 machine guns. Activity of German forces is reported at Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen). Aijix-la-Chapelle was the principal jumping off place for the German armies which invaded Belgium in the last war. Reports have come from Belgium and Holland that certain low-lying areas near the German border have been inundated as a precautionary measure for the defence of Antwerp and Utrecht. On the Western front the French claim ‘to have advanced their lines closer to ‘Saarbucken, an important railway junction, and Zweibrucken, one of the strongest outposts of the Siegfried line. In the Moselle and Saar regions the country is hilly and wooded. Moselle is famous for its vineyards and gives its name to a famous French wine. The Saar basin is a great coal-mining area. German prisoners captured by the French complain that insanitary conditions prevail in the Siegfried line; that cold and damp are affecting the soldiers and that ventilation is bad. Stormy weather has hampered the activities of Allied aircraft, but further flights by Royal Air Force planes have been made over Germany, where millions of leaflets have been dropped. In October, the. autumn rains begin in France and conditions in the field will become more and more difficult as winter approaches. During the 1914-18 war little advance was made during the autumn and winter months because of the weather. Britain has ordered 152 million sandbags from India. During the last war millions of sandbags were required to

build trenches above ground through the low-lying country of Flanders and Northern France. Submarine warfare still goes on, but fewer Allied vessels have been lost. Mr. Chamberlain announced that weekly losses in the first fortnight of the war had averaged 17 and 13. During the last war losses averaged 37 ships a week. No official figures of captured or destroyed U-boats have been released. The only announcement is that " we have destroyed six or seven." Up to September 16 the total intercepted contraband goods for Germany amounted to £500,000. The fate of the Bremen, Germany’s finest passenger liner, of 51,731 tons, is still a mystery since she sailed from New York. She is now reported to have reached Murmansk, a port on the east coast of Lapland. This has neither been confirmed nor denied. Britain’s first casualty list has been released, containing the names of seventeen members of the Royal Air Force. Prisoners of war included Pilot Officer L. H. Edwards, a New Zealander. The British Admiralty announced that eighteen officers and 560 ratings had been lost when H.M.S. Courageous was sunk by a U-boat. Reports continue of revolts in Bohemia and Moravia. Fifteen thousand Slovak troops are reported to have been disarmed. German wireless admits many arrests for sabotage, including the Lord Mayor of Prague. Secret broadcasts by the German Socialist Party have been picked up in England. The Prime Minister of Rumania, M. Armand Calinescu, was assassinated in the street. Many arrests were made of members of the Iron Guard, a Nazi organisation. : President Roosevelt proposes a " cash and carry" plan, whereby all belligerent countries must pay cash in America for goods purchased and transport such goods on their own ships. Britain and France have large credits in the United States; Germany has none, Out of 500 New Zealand volunteers in England 270 are of military age. General Von Fritsch, formerly in command of the German army in 1938 was

reported killed on the Warsaw front. He had been re-appointed after a period of " retirement." Poles in France have been ordered by their Ambassador to report for military: service. aN Dr. Alexis Carrel, French American surgeon-scientist, Nobel prize winner and author of "Man, The Unknown," has been given an important mission, not disclosed, by the French Minister of Public Health. Marshal Smigly-Rydz, Polish Com-mander-in-Chief, has been interned in Rumania. The Polish Government is reported to have taken refuge in Rumania, Mussolini re-affirms Italy’s policy of neutrality, first declared on September 1. The Week on the N.Z. Front Officers and N.C.O.’s of the special force went into camp at Trentham, Ngaruawahia, and Burnham, on September 27. The first of New Zealand’s 6,600 volunteers followed a few days later. War finance measures were introduced by the Minister of Finance (the Hon. W. Nash) on September 26. Provision was made for increased taxation amounting to £2,408,000 until the end of the financial year. The Government announced the personnel of the Council of Primary Production, to organise the production of agricultural and pastoral commodities. The Minister of Labour (the Hon. P. Webb) announced the Industrial Emer- gency Council to deal with labour questions arising out of war conditions. The German Consul, Herr E. Ramm, left Wellington for Germany on a Dutch steamer, Dr. W. Schmid, Swiss Consul, will represent Germany in New Zealand. The Acting Prime Minister (the Hon. P. Fraser) stated that arrangements had been made for the selection and despatch to England of technical experts for a and military service. The Minister of Agriculture (the Hon. W. Lee Martin) appealed to farmers toy retain as many heifer calves as possible. | Every effort would be made to increase production of butter, cheese, meat, and wool. Increased rates of pay, for New Zealand naval forces, to become operative from June 1, announced by the Minister of Defence (the Hon. F. Jones).