A BACKGROUND OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 70, 15 December 1939, Page 8

A BACKGROUND OF THE WAR

The Graf Spee’s Haven

MONTEVIDEO AND “THE PLATE”

A tricky spot for navigation is the estuary Rio de la Plata (River Plate) into which the German battleship, Admiral Graf Spee, crept in darkness after the-iight with British light cruisers off the Uruguayan coast. Being a highway to busy ports it is well lighted and, of course, thoroughly charted, but here and there are banks and shoals.

One of Hie cable messages describing the aftermath of the action states that the Graf Spec moved along the coastline to Montevideo, playing her searchlights toward the shore. This suggests that she approached from the north, where the course for shipping is dose in-shore, and would take tile battleship past a number of small islands and coastal towns and villages.

The Plate is not a river, though it is one of the world’s great river-mouths. It is the joint estuary of several large rivers and innumerable small streams junctioning in a huge, funnel-shaped mouth, the head of which is 170 miles from the sea. These rivers include the Uruguay, which sweeps from the north for 1000 miles through the republic of the same name; the Paraguay, which becomes the Parana as it journeys down from the highlands of Brazil, and the Salado, which swings down from the Andes. Wide And Muddy Sea

The mouth of the Plate is 138 miles wide. A ship approaching from the south and bound for Montevideo steams in grey-yellow water yet is out of sight of land as she crosses the great estuary. No current is discernible. It is as if the sea had suddenly become muddy to the eye and brackish to the taste.

Near Montevideo the course is indicated 'by markers, which rise from the shallow water at intervals and resemble miniature oil-bore derricks. To a landsman the experience of moving on a twisting course from marker to marker, with no land in sight, is a weird one.

Presently, if it is daylight and the visibility is clear; the white skyscrapers of Montevideo peep above the horizon. Then the great, squat building of an American meat-packing company can be seen, slightly to starboard, and later again the glistening white tower of a coastal lighthouse. *■ Mirage-like Effect

Most of the city buildings rise into sight long before the shore is visible, for the Uruguayan coast is low-lying except in the heart of the city itself, which is built on a small hill. From a distance Montevideo appears to spring out of the water with the clear-cut freakishness of a mirage. There is an inner harbour with a narrow entrance —an often-congested place. Many ships lie at anchor and are served by lighters, but there is berthage for large vessels. There is a night ferry service . between Montevideo and Buenos Aires, not unlike the Wellington-Lyttelton service. Buenos Aires is on the Argentine side of the Plate, and higher up. Still further inland are other ports and towns, including Rosario. There is a small English community in Montevideo, and also a community of Germans. A beautiful city of palmfringed squares, bustling cafes and gay night life, it is a striking mixture of old-world Spanish and modern-Ameri-can elements. Skyscrapers and the low stone buildings of Latin-America stand side by side.

Hitler’s Friend Fraulein Evahelen Braun, whom it is suggested Herr Hitler has married, has been his friend ever since 1928, when she met him in the photographic studio of Herr Heinrich Hoffmann in Munich. She was then aged 17. Herr Hoffman is now the Fuhrer’s official photographer. Soon alter that Hitler installed his friend in a suburban villa in Munich, and though there lias been no suggestion that their relationship has been other than platonic, Nazi censorship has allowed few references to her. Recently, however, photographs of Herr Hitler and Fraulein Braun together at Berchtesgaden were published in America. “Utopia” Pounces Details of violent attacks by the Soviet Press on British and French Labour leaders were recently published in this column. Further evidence that the Communists do not regard all workers as their friends is revealed by an American report of the arrest of prominent Socialist and Labour leaders by Soviet authorities in Poland and their removal to Soviet Russia. This has 'been disclosed by Mr. Joseph Baskin, general secretary of the New York Workmen’s Circle. Mr. Baskin said that reports of the arrests havb been received by his organization, the American Federation of Labour and unions affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations.

Among those arrested, Mr. Baskin said, were Henrlck Ehrlich, leader of the Jewish Workers’ Federation of Poland, and Victor Alter, member of the Warsaw Council, president of the Polish National Council of Trade Unions, member of the executive committee of the International Federation of Trade Unions and of the Labour and Socialist International. Others reported arrested and taken to Russia are Hersh Himinelfarb, member of the Warsaw City Council and an official of the Needle Trades Unions of Poland, aud other leaders of the Jewish Workers’ Federation of Poland in Vilna, Bialystok and other cities. Nazi Youth Militarized

German boys are to begin their military training at 16. The leaders of the Hitler Youth have issued a special programme dating to April, 1940, which provides for elementary military training and intensive musketry practice for all between 16 and IS. As many lads of this age are working during the week their Sundays are to be set aside for military purposes.

They will no longer receive physical training but instead will give to military ■work four hours on 24 Sundays of the six months, two hours on 24 weekdays, and on one Sunday in each mouth will give an additional three hours iu the afternoon. A special examination is to be worked for, including a stiff shooting test, questions on'theory and on the use of ground. Those between 14 and 15 -will receive special physical training two hours on a weekday. Those in work will do this during their working hours, but they too will bare to give up some Sunday mornings.