NAZI SELL-OUT

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 93, 17 October 1939, Page 9

NAZI SELL-OUT

IN THE BALTIC

THE NEED FOR GOLD

LONDON, October 16,

Under the sub-headline, "Nazi Sellout in the Baltic," "The Times" gives prominence to a quotation by its Riga special correspondent of the opinion of informed circles there that the withdrawal of Germans from abroad means that Herr Hitler has sold to M. Stalin his European and colonial interests. The correspondent states that Herr Hitler needed gold immediately, and M. Stalin would not pay in advance without irrevocable relinquishment of the German hold in the Baltic, so Berlin precipitately ordered the' repatriations from the Baltic States, these ancient outposts 6f the German empire paying with their bodies and freedom for Herr Hitler's conquest of Poland and the war in the west. Their price in gold enables Herr Hitler to purchase ores from Sweden and other war materials wherever they can be procured. The first irrevocable step having been taken, states the correspondent, Germany sees that distress has been caused and is now trying to alleviate it by slackening the pace. Since Bishop Poelchau, the head of the Germain Lutheran Church in Latvia, likened Herr Hitler's voice to "the voice of God," the spiritual distress of the more mature evacuees has deepened to a sort of unresisting sacrificial resignation; indeed, some have murmured: "We ate sold like slaves for Red gold and forcibly transported to live on stolen Polish farms."

A message from Kaunas oh October 11 stated:—"A consignment of 17£ tons of gold (valued at £4,800,000 at present prices) from Moscow passed through Lithuania by rail for Berlin today, apparently under obligations arising from the r ; ecent German-Soviet economic agreement."