The Guardian. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1941. SPIRIT OF FREEDOM IN OPPRESSED EUROPE

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume LXII, Issue 14, 21 February 1941, Page 3

The Guardian.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1941. SPIRIT OF FREEDOM IN OPPRESSED EUROPE

Printed at Leeston, Canterbury, New Zealand, on Tuesday and Friday afternoons.

The "new order" which the Nazis are trying to establish in Europe is not meeting with the progress which Hitler and his associates had planned. German rule in the occupied territories has been imposed by force and is being maintained by harsh and severe measures, in which crushing fines, imprisonment and the concentration camp are the least. Under such treatment hatred of the ruthless conqueror is steadily growing, is becoming more and more intense, and like a steam boiler where the fires are being constantly fed and the safety valve screwed down; will go on generating power until one day it will burst with great violence, overwhelming the oppressor. Already there are many rumblings and outbursts which show that internal pressure is becoming greater and the explosion is likely to occur when Great Britain leads the forces of Democracy on the final offensive which will shat-

ter the dark forces of Nazidom and liberate the oppressed - peoples of Europe. In those great strongholds of freedom and personal liberty, Norway and Holland, where Democracy has been enthroned for hundreds of years, the spirit of independence is the brightest; burn most fiercely the of hatred and there the forces which will eventually help to destroy Nazi Germany, show most signs of activity. pdT^'The Norwegians are displaying a gallant independence

of spirit and with whatever means which are within their power are resisting the Nazification of their country. They could not prevent the forcible robbing of their country of foodstuffs and other goods by the Germans, but they are defeating, by peaceable means and sometimes not so peaceable, attempts to establish Nazi institutions. Germany will never crush the spirit of Norway or its people, who are working and preparing and praying for the dawning of their day of freedom.

In Holland, the dour, determined nature of the people, m a stubborn defence of their liberties, is exerting itself. In their veins rim the blood of men who fought the ravaging North Sea for land on which to build homes, and they won; who fought one invader after another in defence of this hardwon possession, and they, the present day inheritors of those great traditions will never rest contentedly under a foreign yoke, much less one which enforces such a condition of slavery as that of the Germans. The Dutch are making as much trouble as possible without incurring severe reprisals. The weapon they are employing is passive resistance, and the Dutch know well how to use it. The prisons and concentration camps are crowded with patriots, and high officials have been dismissed because of this or for what the Nazis describe as "fostering hatred of Germans among the people." Here too, the Nazis, by their own brutal actions, are generating a force which will' one day help to destroy them.

Anti-German sentiment is growing in France, both in that part left under the nominal control of Marshal Petain and in the territory occupied by Germany. Here, as elsewhere in Europe, their only hope for freedom and independence is the triumph of Great Britain. One estimate has it that two-thirds of the French people hope for Germany's defeat, T/mt so far they have done little or nothing, openly, to help themselves against the invader. They have not yet fully recovered from the shock of humiliation brought by the complete and disastrous defeat of their armed forces and the partition of their country by the conqueror. In addition to all the clamps which the Germans have fastened on the French, there are more than one and a half millions of French soldiers prisoners of war in Germany. They are the hostages for French good behaviour. The Germans have all along resisted French appeals for their liberation, although the French have had to send home all German soldiers and airmen captured by them. Germans would not hesitate to take reprisals on these unfortunate Frenchmen for any act of Frenchmen hostile to Germany and threats of more violence on these prisoners make a bludgeon which the Germans are using to the full on their despairing countrymen.

Czechoslovakia is another country where, despite the barbarities and cruelties inflicted by the Germans, the name of freedom is still burning brightly. Although heads are bowed, the spirit has not been broken, but, bruised and battered, lives on, nourished in the hope of better days to come, and the certainty of restored freedom and liberation. It is not too much to expect, when the armies of Democracy begin to roll back the Nazi hordes, that the peoples of the conquered and ravaged- countries will rise against the invaders; who will blame them if, in striking a blow for their own freedom, they exact a stern and just revenge.