ORDER TO MARCH

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 82, 7 April 1941, Page 7

ORDER TO MARCH

BRITAIN BLAMED

EXTENSION OF WAR

"THE ARCH-ENEMY"

"MUST BE EXPELLED FROM CONTINENT"

(By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright.)

LONDON, April 6

A Berlin radio broadcast heard in London said that the Nazi Propaganda Minister. Dr. Goebbels, announced that Germans were marching into Greece and Yugoslavia.

The German radio plated lhat Dr. Gocbbcls said: "In the name of the Fubrer. I am reading the following Order of the Day lo the German army in the East:

" 'Soldiers of iho south-cast front: your hour lias come. Since early tin? morning the German people have been at war with the Belgrade Government. We will lay down our arms only when {his hand of ruffians is definitely and emphatically eliminated and the last Briton expelled from this part of the Continent. These misled people must realise that they have to thank Britain for this situation.' "

Hitler's proclamation continued: — "The Yugoslavs must thank England —the greatest warmonger of all times.

I "The Germans can enter the new struggle with the inner satisfaction that their leader has done everything for a peaceful settlement. I tried to convince the Yugoslavs how important their collaboration would be in the in-! | terests of peace, and I succeeded in establishing a basis whereby nothing ! was demanded from the Yugoslavs. But the British paid criminal elements to usurp power. These are the same elements which caused the last war. Britain is pursuing the policy of letting others fight for her, as in ! Poland. She has again tried to in- j volve Germany in a struggle in which i Britain hoped to finish off the German people once and for all, and, if possible, destroy the German army. The Germans in a few weeks swept aside this instrument of British policy. I THE CAMPAIGN IN THE WEST. "Then, on April 9 last year. Britain attempted a thrust at the German north flank through Norway. The German soldiers, in an unforgettable struggle, j eliminated the British from Norway, i and in a few weeks the German peopie achieved what the world had not j deemed possible. Again, a few weeks \ later, Churchill thought the moment ! right to make a renewed thrust through i his allies, Belgium and France, into j the Ruhr. A victorious hour for the German soldier on the west front be- '< gan. How the German armies defeat- I cd the legions of capitalism and plutocracy is already history. The cam- j paign in the west emphatically terminated after 45 days.

"Then Churchill concentrated the strength of his empire against Italy in Africa. Now that the co-operation of Italian and German units has banished that, danger from the African theatre, the new British aim is the realisation of a plan which they postponed because of the gigantic victories of the German armies."

ALLEGED ATTACKS ON

GERMANS

"We demanded nothing from Yugoslavia except that it should take its patt in the reconstruction of the new order, but criminal usurpers took power. following the path of Churchill. The new Belgrade Government, as happened in Poland, mobilised decrepit old people into the Cabinet. Members of the German Embassy and employees of our consulates in Yugoslavia were daily subjected to the most humiliating attacks. Bandits laid German schools in ruins, innumerable German nationals were kidnapped and attacked, and some were killed. This is the answer to my effort of ihe past eight years lo bring about closer co-operation, a task which I have pursued most assidu-

ously

"Soldiers of the south-east [ront. you now lake the interests of the Reich under your protection. You will do just as well in the south-east -is your comrades did in Norway and on the west front. You will be no less courageous than were the German divisions which in 1915. on the same Balkan soil, fought so victoriously. You will be humane only where the enemy is humane to you. and where he confronts you with brutality you will brat him back with the same weapon*.

"The fight on Greok soil is noi against the Greek people but against the arch-enemy. England. The prayers and thoughts and the very life of all Germans arc again in the heart of every German soldier." (Signed) Adolf Hitler

Dr. Goebbcls. broadcasting in the presence of journalists, said: "At H a.m. German troops were ordered !o march against Yugoslavia to establish peace and order in that country with all the means at their disposal, Yugo-

slavia is a country of bandits and rebels. A clique of rebels has taken power, gaoling those who secured a happy future for Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia called a genera] mobilisation, thus openly going over to the enemy, and has put its territory at the disposal of Britain."

"The invasion of Greece and Yugoslavia," said Dr. Goebbels. "is justified by the massing in Greece of British forces and the presence of British staff officers in Yugoslavia attached to the Yugoslav army, while Yugoslav officers have gone to Greece to establish contact with the and Greek armies. Germany cannot tolerate Yugoslavia, like Greece, becoming an assembly place for British troops. Greece has consistently violated her neutrality. Herr Hitler warned the Greek Minister in Berlin that Germany would not tolerate British troops in Greece. Herr Hitler gave a further warning when he declared that German troops would meet the British wherever they appeared. Greece did not take the lesson to heart because she was too deeply entangled with Britain. British technicians began to arrive soon after the start of the Greece-Italian war, and the occupation of Greece followed. It was clear several weeks ago that Britain intended to repeat the Salonika adventure of the last war and the building up of an expeditionary force against Germany in Greece. The realisation of this, coupled with reports of large British troop movements, which even American reports put at 200,000 men, meant that Germany could not remain inactive. Germany has now ordered her troops to drive the British out of Greece."