NAZI COLONY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 246, 18 October 1939, Page 6

NAZI COLONY.

IN BOHEMIA NOW.

"BROWN BOLSHEVISM."

A SYSTEMATIC PLANNING.

HOW PARTY GAINED CONTROL.

What has happened In Czechoslovakia since the seized it? The most enlightening answer to the question is to be found in an article in the "Saturday Evening Post" vy Demaree Bess, who went to Prague to find out for himself. He interested himself less in the military and political occupation of Bohemia and Moravia than in the economic penetration methods of the Nazi party.

At first sight t"ie Czech industrial structure, like the Czech Government, appears little changed, but the inquiring American presently found that ilo Czech executive —in factories, in banks, in Government offices —could make a responsible decision without finding a German. Tile real control is in the hands of the Nazi party. How was this brought about? .Mr. Ke*s became convinced that the German occupation in March was not hasty and unplanned, but "planned systematically and far in advance, probably before the Munich conference. Here is how the Xazi party acted: —

"Lust October, immediately utter the four great Powers of Europe had agreed upon the partition of Czechoslovakia" (Mr, Bess writes), "German Xazi agents approached Czech industrialists who held large interests in the Sudeten districts which had been surrendered to- Germany at Munich. The Xazis suggested to the Czechs that they might recover their in Sudctenland if they were willing to make a reasonable deal. The Czechs were then told that their investments would be protected if they could arrange for the transfer at a reasonable price of Czech-owned shares, in ' the Praguer Eseompte Bank to the Dresden Bank, in Germany. This deal finally was completed in the winter of 1038. It gave the Dresden Bank a larpe interest, not only in the Praguer Eseompte Bank but also in several Czech heavy industries in whose shares the bank had invested.

"The most significant thing about this transaction is the fact that the Dresden Bank is controlled by the German Xazi party, as distinct from the German After October, therefore, the Xazi party also controlled the Escompte Bank in Prague. It was prepared, months in advance of the occupation, to use this bank for purposes of its own. And when the occupation finally occurred, the Escompte Bank launched a series of operations which quickly made it the most powerful bank in the protectorate. For one thing, it took over the property of Jews. The Jews, many of whom had intermarried in the Caech industrial and commercial classes, were particularlyactive in the import and export trade. As it was made clear to them that they nad.no future with their country under Nasi control, thousands of them sought pernnssjdn to leave. When they did so they were told that their applications "satLfTt f ' led imtil the - v had made satisfactory arrangements" with the Escompte Rank. At the Fscompte they E° ? th -J must to the bank full powers of attorney, giving the authority to do whatever it liked wUh their property. Thus the Escompte Bank gained control, within a few months, Of thousands of Czech enterprises whose profits now flow through the Eseompte Bank into the Dresden t X' dlrectl y into the hands Ot the >>azi party's high command.

Who Gets Profit*? "What," aj&s Mr. Bess, "is the final diaposition of these profits, such * large Pa t of the profits of Rehomiait and Moravian industry and commerce? No Ozeeh knows the very few S er fr n xT kn ™ ° nl y the individuals answer Vw high CQmman 'l answer that question. The funds are at their disposal, to use «s they see fit Iwa'N l Naders, like Bol»'r to

This policy met with resistance from the Czech authorities, hut the Nazi* STomT 4 * The - y an that the old laws were not in force and new ones must be framed by the cLch Go\ ernmeut and, 0 f course, approved bv the German civil Governor, The Governor recened the laws, but delayed his approval, and in the law-lees* period Nazi organisations used the situation to expropriate more properties. Afr n n PU ' SUing thia l ,olic y—of which -the v 3 gIVeS SQme strikin S samples the Nazis are m conflict not only with ' Vt Wit ? l th e German army Tonc tr ,na n C,vU adni »»stration. So ae the ariny o- e ts fiwm Czech industry the supplies it needs, it ' b " ot . concerned aWit who owns the factones and takes the profits. idZ" h * ve different Pressure ami H ol '^ ht P ,,reha «» under pressure and through various forms of expropriation, they have swiftly increased their holdings in all branches of Czech industry and commerce. And in June they introduced measures which appeared disturbing jiot only to the Czech industrialists but even to the Ger man army itself = • ■ nrofits of fV „ , squeezing out pronts of thousands of Czech business enterprises until thev acnroart vanishing point, and by sffint un^o well^"a COnt, '° ls that German as shoL nn i ° Wners of factories and the%azi T l ' I)OSSP f real impendence, the Nazi*, have made these owners in went "Tht e " ,p !^' ees of the governwork!" 10W " Bol shevism' at «»;« SrtS, "}?" repje£nt' a , Rl,ssian Bolsheviks, tionary a - nd brutal noiiaiy force, hostile to German sometimes *h 7*" ** to Czeeb ea P«talism, of German 6 eVe " to the objects or berman imperialism."