GERMAN SPIES AT WORK

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23749, 22 September 1942, Page 5

GERMAN SPIES AT WORK

NORTHERN IRELAND OPERATIONS (Rec. 12.45 a.m.) NEW YORK, Sept. 21. A correspondent of the “New York Times” "somewhere in Northern Ireland" says: "The battle between German spies and United States .counterespionage agents is reaching a new peak. Large numbers of pro-Nazi south Irishmen are infiltrating across the borders, causing growing trouble as the size of the American forces and installations here increases. “More than 50 workers were dismissed from one American construction job as enemy agents. A woman working for the Nazis was picked up three times near American operational centres. “Officials declare that members of the Irish Republican Army are informing Germany, immediately on the arrival of American troops, about their equipment, billets and other activities. Counter-espionage work is well developed, but is handicapped by the neutrality of Eire.”

DEPORTATION OF JEWS

CATHOLIC CRITICISM OF VICHY

(Rec. 7.45 p.m.) BERNE, Sept. 20.. It is learned from a reliable French quarter that Marshal Petain expressed dismay when he was informed of the Vatican’s critical attitude to the deportation of Jews and foreign internees from France. Marshal Petain, at. a dinner at which the Papal Nuncio was present, expressed the hope that the Papal Nuncio understood the difficulty of the situation. The Papal Nuncio replied that this was not so, and that the Church was deeply concerned. The conversation led to a series of formal discussions, culminating in written declarations from the French cardinals.

The Vichy radio says that M, Laval had a conference with Marshal Petain to-day, following a speech by M. Laval, in which he warned the French people that they must collaborate to the utmost with the Nazis. He said that the army would protect the nation from all dangers and even against those within the country. M. Laval has taken the first step towards the enforcement of the new compulsory labour law. Vichy has issued a decree calling up all single men up to 50 years and married men up to 35 who are without regular employment. They are called upon to register and state the reasons why they are not employed. The Vichy Cabinet has given M. Laval full power- to dismiss at will, without further formality, all civilian officials “as an exceptional measure until the war is ended.” “The rift between Vichy and France is widening rapidly,” says the “Sunday Times.” “The discredit into which Marshal Petain has steadily fallen has, during the last week, deepened. Marshal Petain posed' as a patriot, yet he consented to the wholesale deportation of his fellow Frenchmen as German factory fodder. “Never will the workers of France forget that Marshal Petain, a Roman Catholic, consented to the perpetration on French Jews of cruelties irreconcilable with any religion. This has brought on him the reprobation of the French clergy. The chief executant of these hideous German commands is, of course, M. Laval, but the shame of it falls also on Marshal Petain. “This continued degradation of France is proving too much even for some elements at Vichy, and there are signs of a divergence between M. Laval and the civil service and between the Government departments presided over by M. Laval and others that so far have mainly escaped his manipulations.”

BRITISH WARSHIPS ALL REPLACED

NEW BATTLESHIPS IN COMMISSION LONDON. Sept. 20. The First Lord of the Admiralty (Mr A. V. Alexander) gave some encourageing facts concerning the Navy during a speech at Leeds to-day. He said that all the capital ships, aircraft-carriers, and cruisers lost during the last two years and a quarter had been replaced, and destroyer losses, although they had been heavy, had been more than replaced. From Mr Alexander’s statement it can be assumed that Britain’s newest 35,000-ton battleships, H.M.S. Anson and H.M.S. Howe, are now in commission. Canada, he said, had made a big contribution to the fleet of corvettes for convoy work, and the Navy now had hundreds of landing craft. British workers were producing more per man of population than those of any other country in the world.