PANIC AND SUFFERING

Evening Star, Issue 21935, 23 January 1935, Page 7

PANIC AND SUFFERING

NAZI TERROR IN THE SAAR PLIGHT OF THE SEPARATISTS Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright LONDON, January 22. The ‘ Manchester Guardian’s ’ special Saarbruckcn correspondent, describing the exodus of men, women, and children from the Nazi terror, says thousands are facing a terrible nightmare. He visited nearly twenty Saar towns and villages, where an organised nightmare, skilfully thought out, is being applied with all the uncanny psychological insight of which the Nazis are capable. Torments inflicted by the Nazis in Germany are literally dangled before the eyes of Separatists, as those who voted for the status quo are called, always with the intimation that they 7 will he inflicted after March 1. Straw dolls suspended from a kind of gallows arc nightly paraded before the windows of houses occupied by separatists, and the houses are kept under constant observation. Whenever the occupants emerge they are spat upon and Ihcir children are bullied and mocked. A woman of sixty years was seized by the head and pushed into a muck heap. The police do not interfere, and even co-operate with the Nazis in making “political arrests,” searching and often damaging houses. Tlie international force is too small and scattered. “It is idle to suppose that the guarantees given by Germany will be observed when they are already being circumvented. A special League commissioner ought to bo sent to the Saar immediately to help to relievo the panic and suffering. The League ought also to make representations to Berlin to restrain German wireless stations, and co-operato in maintaining the Governing Commission’s authority, which has virtually ceased.” REFUGE IN FRANCE PARIS, January 22. (Received January 23, at 12.25 p.m.) It is officially announced that 2,500 persons have taken refuge in France from the Saar since the plebiscite. SEPARATIST LEADER SHOT POLICE COMMISSIONER ARRESTED. SAARBRUCKEN, January 22. (Received January 23, at 12.25 p.m.) The police attempted to arrest Paul Meyer, an ex-prefect of the Rhineland, on an old German warrant, charging him with embezzlement. Meyer was shot dead when lie resisted. The antiNazi Press suggests terrorism, alleging German revenge against Meyer, who was tlie leader of the Separatists. Police Commissioner Tilk, who allegedly fired the shot, was subsequently arrested on a supreme plebiscite court warrant on a charge of murder. LONG SOUGHT BY GERMAN AUTHORITIES. LONDON, January 22. (Received January 23, at 12.25 p.m.) The Berlin correspondent of ‘ The Times ’ says that although the Press denies any political significance, it is emphasised that Meyer was a notorious Separatist, and since the Rhineland occupation he has been sought by the German authorities on that account. Reports give the impression that the bullet found the right man.