NAZI THREAT

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 238, 8 October 1942, Page 5

NAZI THREAT

AGAINST PRISONERS

Sequel To British Commando

Raid On Sark British Ofl'uial Win*less itec. 1 p.m. IIUGBY. Oct. 7. The German threat to put all British officers and men captured at Dieppe in irons from noon to-morrow as a reprisal for the alleged tying tip of prisoners captured by the British during a recent raid on Sark. in the Channel Islands, was swiftlycountered by the War Office with a categorical denial of the allegations in the following terms: —

"I nnuirics were instituted after the Dieppe raid. All German prisoners brought hack to Britain were interrogated and unanimously declared they had not had their hands

tied and were "iven humane treatment. This statement can be proved bv the German protecting power. Any of the prisoners can be seen by "the representatives of the German protecting power to confirm this. The evidence the enemy adduced rests on their unsubstantiated assertions. If the German Government carries out the threats mentioned in the communique the British Government will have to consider its future action."

Combined Operations Headquarters, in a communique dealing with the raid on Sark, which throws into grim relief the German methods of wholesale deportation of forced labour from occupied territory, states: A small-scale raid was made on Saturday night on the Island of Sark. It was one of many such operations which are successfully and frequently carried out and about which nothing normally is said, but since the enemy, from ulterior motives, announced the raid with the addition of inaccurate details the facts are issued.

The main purpose of this raid was tn obtain first-hand information of the suspected ill-treatment of Hrilish residents on the island. As a result these suspicions have been confirmed I, v the seizure of a proclamation Veiled 'Knaekfuss, Oberst-Feldkom-mandani.' This states that all male civilians not born in the Channel I-lands or not. permanently resident there between the ages of 16 and <0 irt' to be deported to Germany w r itn their families. This deportation occurred last week at the shortest notice and 900 men were conscripted from Guernsey. Four hundred have slill to go, and it is expected there will be more from Jersey than from Guernsey. [-'leven Sark men were warned to . la.-t week, but two committed u' •ide. , lie int il 1ii•11 is 11 laid in.'? force i Lii.-is'ed of tell oilieers and men. There were no casualties. P ive prisoners were taken. *\ ou / attempted to escape were shot, (he ~ilir-i- cunlii nied 'he deportations :. 111 i ,i.d iii ■. _ were l'"i 1.-reed laboui.