GUARDS & GERMANS

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 157, 31 December 1940, Page 9

GUARDS & GERMANS

ACTIVITY IN RUMANIA

NEW ZEALANDER ON SCENE

POLITICAL MOVES

Of the entry of German troops into Rumania, a movement which, according to reports, has lately been vastly increased, Mr. John McLaughlin, of Christchurch, saw a good deal during a recent enforced stay in that country. He was for fourteen months in Bucharest, and, while stranded there until eventually evacuated with other British residents, he was able to gain a good insight into the practical politics of the country and the moves made by the various contending parties. He was there when the Iron Guards assassinated the Prime Minister, M. Calinescu, and when some 300 of the Guards were rounded up and shot, some of the bodies being left lying in the street as a warning to traitors. Mr. McLaughlin came into ■ contact with the Englishmen who .were arrested and held on a charge of sabotaging the oil wells. The treatment they received, he said, was shocking. He gave details, and explained that the report of one of the men supported the belief that the arrests and treatment were instigated through the German Legation. LARGE GERMAN FORCE. When Mr. McLaughlin left there were 45,000 German troops in Rumania. They were, he said, in virtual control of the country and were showing no signs of shortage in the matter of general equipment. It appeared to him that they had all been freshly equipped and they certainly looked a workmanlike lot. At one period of his stay Mr. McLaughlin was at Galantz, where forced Dutch labourers were assembling machinery. The "machines" turned out to be submarines, brought in sections from Germany, with the idea of slipping them down the Danube. Plans, however, were upset, as the! Dutch workmen sabotaged so many parts that, it was believed, only three submarines were ever put into commission from that quarter. It.was funny to see the Germans at that time, said Mr. McLaughlin. Ostensibly they were brought to help the Rumanians. "As a matter of fact," he said, "they were there to keep an eye on the Russians. I saw numbers of them with red crosses on their arms and big" revolvers in their hip pockets." TWO MAIN CLASSES. Explaining that there were two main classes of people in Rumania, Mr. McLaughlin said: "There are the intelligentsia, who are entirely delightful in their courtesy, hospitality, and appreciation of the finer things of life; and there are the peasants, who are a solid, likeable section. "The Iron Guards belong to neither. They are the scum of the cities who care for nothing but the loot they can get. They are absolutely unscrupulous and will go to any lengths to get money. Today they are having everything their own way, for, although Germany is practically in full control of the country, the Guards are not interfered with to any great extent. They are a law unto themselves and anyone who speaks against them will be caught off guard some time or other and battered up."