NAZIS IN TROUBLE

Evening Star, Issue 23836, 17 March 1941, Page 2

NAZIS IN TROUBLE

REFRACTORY DUTCH COERCIVE MEASURES Germany’s exploitation of Dutch labour for its war effort proceeds apace, said a writer in the London ‘ Daily Telegraph ’ on September 29. The Reich Commissioner in the occupied area, Seyss-Inquart, _ has appointed a German trade .union leader from the Saar territory, Jacob, to be inspector for co-ordination between the Dutch .labour supply and German .war needs, ' Jacob is, to ,!. have, a, . central' bureau at The “Hague, where' lists of., vacancies in German .factories are received'and distributed oyer local Dutch labour exchange bureaux. German officials have been appointed in these local bureaux, “ to encourage Dutch'labourers to accept work 'in Germany.” This, of course, means that every request for work by a Dutch unemployed labourer is met with an offer of work in a German factory. The result so far has been disappointing for the Germans, as the Dutch unemployed preferred to remain oh the dole instead of accepting a job in Germany. To counteract this lack of enthusiasm the Germans have withdrawn the : dole from all who refused to accept work in Germany. LABOUR “ PASSPORTS.” For greater efficiency of this policy of subservience of Dutch labour to Germany’s war effort, German officials in the .Dutch labour exchanges are giving vocational advice with the . aim of creating a reserve of Dutch labour, trained in war industry, from which they can draw for German needs. On top of this every Dutch working man is to have a labour “ passport,” containing his antecedents and remarks from his employers. ■ This leads to a process of selection, whch will enable the Germans to discard .all " Unreliable ” elements in the Dutch labour community. .... The German policy of forced movement of manpower in the countries, subjugated to Germany,, of which Poland is an outstanding example, is

thus a more subtle .way .introduced lA the ’Netherlands: - ; . T'’, ' The/Gcrinansybave'found it .jjeceskify in - use ■ compulsion against ilia Socialists • in- Holland’ because ~tha working classes could not he battered 1 into submission by the barrage of propaganda directed'at them. The'DutcJj Quisling No. 1, Rost von Tonningen, who had been appointed Commissioner of the Dutch Labour Party, - was recently obliged to admit in a wireless talk that he had been met with sus* picion everywhere. As a result, ha was- compelled to dissolve the . organisation altogether, arid it is to’ be ' replaced by a Labour movement on the Nazi model. GERMANS DISAPPOINTED. The Germans have generally been disappointed by the behaviour of the Dutch people, who, according to an official comment in Berlin, ‘deliberately deny their German origin, and still believe that the old regime can return to Holland.” The conviction in -leading. German quarters seems to be that the Dutch must be regarded as members of the. German people in spite of their different- history and development. The alleged affinity of Dutch, and. German blood has, however,- not been a-\yak--ened even by the enforced stay; -of Dutch labourers in Germany, after .they had been .deprived of their: dole arid -ration cards in Holland to compel them to accept work, in Germany. ..... It is reliably, reported-that manyr-of them have secretly returned-to Holland, They found conditions, in Ger,many so untenable that they preferred privation in their own, country.