WAVE OF TERRORISM

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 83, 4 October 1941, Page 9

WAVE OF TERRORISM

HUNT BY GESTAPO

PEOPLE LEAVE THEIR HOMES

LONDON, October 2. Besides the 38 Czechs who were sentenced to death yesterday, and a further 228 persons who appeared before Moravian and Bohemian courts-martial and' have been handed over to the Gestapo for further interrogation, reports received in Czech quarters here reveal that there have been many more executions and arrests than those officially announced. | The Gestapo is hunting in the most remote villages for suspects. Thousands of people have left their homes and are hiding in the woods and hills. There are appalling numbers of suicides, one of them being Dr. Rudolf Rumpl, a pioneer aeronaut. It is pointed out that nearly all the industrial districts in South Moravia are now under martial law by which device the Germans are desperately attempting to maintain production. It ,is reported from Stockholm that President Hacha sought to resign as a protest against the mass executions, but the Nazis forced him to remain. A message from Bucharest states that Greeks, 'armed with machine-guns, hand grenades, and revolvers, attempted an uprising in the mountain areas around Drama. The police and military are said to have "re-established calm." Reports from Paris say that arrests of alleged French Communists con-j tinue. Seven were accused of possessj ing explosives, arms, and leaflets. Five I were imprisoned and one shot. Communist activities and sabotage are reported from The Hague, where four persons were shot and one received a life sentence after an .espionage and sabotage organisation was discovered. It is reported that the dynamiting of a cliff 50 miles from Bratislava held up railway traffic for 16 days. TEN-FOLD REPRISALS THREATENED. When two German airmen were shot in a dark street in Zagreb on September 30 the Nazis said that 10 Croats would die every time such incidents occur. The quisling Croat leader, Dr. Pave--1 litch, interviewed by the "Popolo d'ltalia," admits that it is impossible to stamp out the guerrilla warfare in Croatia, where every yard of railway and every bridge must be guarded. A dozen German soldiers who were walking to the Zagreb airport were fired on from the shadow of buildings, and two were killd and one seriously injured.

The Italian newspaper "Corriere della Sera" estimates that 543 persons were arrested at the Bulgarian port of Varna on September 27 and 28, and it states that arms and explosives were seized.

A Hungarian military tribunal has sentenced .18 persons to 13 to 15 years' gaol for treason; also in Bucharest five have been condemned to forced labour for from seven to 25 years for political activities.

In spite of warnings sabotage is increasing in Poland. It continues to be aimed particularly against the German lines of communication to the Russian front. The main line was blocked for ten days, when a bridge near Bialystok was blown up. The Germans arrested 300 persons, of whom they shot 15 and publicly exhibited the bodies.

The Lisbon correspondent of the "Daily Mail" says that two underground movements in Austria are-pre-paring a revolt against Hitler—the Communists and monarchists. Two secret radio stations are broadcasting regularly to the Austrians, and the Communists have revived their own newspaper, which they .are secretly circulating. It is reported from Paris that Paul Colette, the assailant of M. Laval, M. Deat, and a French army officer, have been sentenced to death after a secret trial.

Such of the cable news on this page as is so headed has appeared in "The Times" and is cabled to Australia and New Zealand by special permission. It should be understood that the opinions are not those of . "The ■Times" unless expressly stated to be so.