DUTCH DISASTER

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 95, 23 April 1945, Page 6

DUTCH DISASTER

EXTENT OF NAZI FLOODING Re£, TV," . LONDON, April 22. The full extent of the disastrous flooding north-west of Polder, in Holland, is shown in air photographs, says Reuters correspondent with the Cana--2n a n™lst Arm?- -What last week was 50,000 acres of rich farm land is now a great sheet of water 16 feet deep. Not a house or tree can be seen. No living thing could have survived the torrent which swept in from the Zuider Zee last Wed-.esday, when the Ger- ™? S dy£anuted the great main dike, inlteen thousand Dutch farmers lived in this area, but there is nothing to indicate that the Germans gave them any warning. • F?^ r ' which was won from the sea in 1930, was one of the world's most modern farming communities. In 15 minutes the Germans wiped out the work of 15 years, and the waters of me zuider Zee are now back where they were m 1930, beating against the old sea wall.

i~The Germans could at any moment loose them over hundreds of thousands of additional acres. The whole of the west of Holland lies at their mercy. They have rlready submerged one million acres of farm land. A Dutch officer said: ihey have put our country back to 1930 They are capable of putting us back to where we were in the year 1000, when the first dikes were built. There are people in our great cities who are too weak to stand in food queues. Each new flood eliminates additional food-producin* areas. Ihe feeling of helplessness, frustration. and rage is almost unbearable."

'A special Anzac service will be held at Wellington College tomorrow afternoon. Lieutenant-Colonel R. Young, D.5.0., an ex-commander of the Maori Battalion, will be a speaker at the service.