ALL NAZI RESERVES NOW CALLED UP.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 199, 24 August 1939, Page 11

ALL NAZI RESERVES NOW CALLED UP.

WARTIME STRENGTH.

Military Preparation In Danzig. POLAND STILL CALM. United Press Association.—Copyright. (Received 1.30 p.m.) LOXDOX, August 23. The final concentration of German troops has been completed. The last reserves, who would be called up in the event of war, have received their papers. From to-morrow morning all air raid wardens will be on permanent day and night duty. There is now no doubt that the German Army is ready to march at a moment's notice. The German Press significantly does not mention the British Cabinet's statement reaffirming its pledge to Poland. Officials, however, appear surprised at the firmness of the statement, but profess to continue to believe that neither Britain nor France will fight. The same quarters assert categorically that "the Versailles Poland'' is dead. They predict a fourth partition, and openly threaten that Germany will inarch to Warsaw and . beyond unless a settlement on the Czechoslovakian lines is forthcoming.

If the worst comes to the worst, the average German is convinced it will be all over in four or five days. His viewpoint coincides with the "Boersen Zeitung" , headlines: "Loudon Puzzled and Afraid"—"Recognition of Defeat." The Press has made Germans believe that Russia will now stand shoulder to shoulder with Germany, and actually join in grabbing Polish territory.

Alongside stories of Poland's "bestial treatment of Germans," the newspapers unanimously declare Germany lias resumed Bismarck's foreign policy of friendship with Russia, which Kaiser Wilhelm imprudently destroyed.

Military preparations in Danzig have been accelerated, and new trenches and barbed wire entanglements have been established on the western border. Poland Appreciates Britain's Stand. British firmness is appreciated in Poland, where there is complete absence of panic. Cafes and restaurants are filled. There is every confidence in the adequacy of anti-aircraft defences. Balloon barrages have been sent up on various parts of the Polish frontier. There is a good deal of Air Force activity, and commercial machines have been requisitioned, says a Warsaw message.

An official Berlin agency alleges that Polish anti-aircraft guns fired on three German passenger 'planes in the vicinity of the Corridor near the Baltic Sea. This is described as an insolent act of lawlessness by Polish pirates.

The Independent Cable Service reports from Warsaw that the Polish Government denies that German air liners were fired on. It describes the. German report as a pure fabrication.

Germany's entire eastern frontier on both sides of the Polish Corridor is included in a huge area prohibited to aeroplanes from 6 p.m. to-night until 8 p.m. on Saturday.

Trains travelling from Germany are crowded with British and French subjects and other foreigners.

Herr von Papen is en route to Turkey, where he hopes to wean Turkey from the democratic front. The Nazis consider that he now has every possibility of success. 1

Italy Wants to Avoid War.

A Rome message says there are • few signs of military activity. A fervent desire to avoid war is expressed in the newspapers, which continue to urge Poland not to commit suicide. A dispatch from Bucharest says a Rumanian spokesman announced that Poland was informed a fortnight ago that Rumania declined to be drawn into war for the sake of Poland, despite traditional ■ friendship.

The Italian Press is entirely dedicated to Germany s great diplomatic victory over the "eneirclers," which is the greatest blow in the face that British diplomacy has ever received. It is predicted that.. the Turko-British and Franco-Russian pacts will be reduced to scraps of paper..