GERMAN BRUTALITIES

Greymouth Evening Star, 12 February 1940, Page 7

GERMAN BRUTALITIES

MINISTER’S CONDEMNATION

NO PATCHEP-UP PEACE

[BRITISH official wireless.]

RUGBY, February 10.

Speaking at Bristol on the course of the.- war, the Air Minister (Sir C. Kingsley Wood) said: —■ ' “Never, in.’ any great conflict in our history,has this country been so united and so resolute. We are fighting for all those principles of international order and decency without which the world would be intolerable. We are fighting for a real peace and not .a patched up pact, which would leave Europe once again the subject of assault and violation.” ’ Referring to the niconvemence ana sometimes even the hardships whic the exercise of Great Britain’s sea power and her use of the economic weapon necessarily entailed for neutrals, Sn Kingsley Wood said: “We sincerely regret it and are doing our best to reduce it to a minimum, but we feel that we are justified in asking those who are affected to remember that we are not only fighting for our existence as a nation but also for the existence of all those principles without which life would not be worth living. He urged them to ponder the alternative to these inconveniences—“-The whole of Europe suffering the unspeakable horrors which are even now being perpetrated on the unhappy Polish people.” “This led the Air Minister to a statement that “there is no possible doubt that conditions in Polish country occupied by Germans are simply abominable. They are far worse than the area occupied by the Russians. German methods in occupied Poland since September have passed through two phases. They tried first to terrorise the population by shooting individuals, picked at random from the towns. In Konin, for instance, they decided to shoot 35 people. They collected 34 victims and then, finding they were short of one, went into a chemist’s shop and seized, the first person they found. They then realised that these methods would.not.avail them and would lead nowhere and they decided to decimate the natural leaders of a national movement. . .Th© Polish • Government estimates the number already shot at 15,000.’.’... Referring to the understanding between Germany and Russia, Sir Kingsley Wood said that although the scale was unknown here, it was certain that the understanding would be broken as soon as it suited Germany and that “not even Herr von Ribbentrop would suggest that Germany has drawn any great advantage, either political or material, from this uneasy partnership.” The . Air Minister then proceeded to contrast the firmness and completeness of Great Britain’s alliance with France. Turning to the actual theatre of war. Sir Kingsley Wood said: “Between the Thames and north-east Scotland, our merchant ships in large numbers move up and down on their peaceful business each day. , The German airman emulates his naval confederate in a ruthless and murderous attack on them. He does not discriminate between British or neutral ships. He obviously prefers those vessels which cannot r.defend. themselves.” He particularly deplored the enemy machinegunning and bombing of . helpless fishermen, recalling the fact that only a few years ago the nations of Europe, under the Nyon arrangements, condemned all attacks without warning on merchantmen as acts of piracy. He said, “It is astonishing that the German high command seeks to condone these atrocities and to authorise the attacks on lightships and the shelling of the men who man them, and whose sole purpose and lives are dedicated to the greater safety of all those who sail the seas.” AIRCRAFT EXPANSION. The Air Minister revealed that orders to the value of some £6,000,000. covering the production of the latest type of aircraft, had been given to a greatly extended group organisationwhich was established in Canada after the Air Mission to that country in 1938. The British output ,of aircraft had doubled in a year. Sir Kingsley Wood revealed that during the Arctic weather of January, the aircraft of the coastal command flew close on 1,000,000 miles. The first half of January provided the most severe flying weather ever known. Yet, throughoui the bitter spell, not a single day’s halt was called in the vital work of the coastal command. Not a single day passed without fighter patrols taking off to guard Britain’s shores. In another passage in his speech, in which Sir Kingsley Wood comprehensively reviewed the course of the war, he spoke of French and British cooperation in the air: “In staff matters, there is the closest contact. W* have a comprehensive scheme of pooling information. We study problems systematically together; secret equipment is exchanged and new developments shared; and, as a practical test of all this, on more than one occasion reconnaissance aircraft approaching this country have been pursued and shot down by French fighters.” Discussing results in actual combats in the air, the Minister said: “It is not surprising—at any rate to us—that that part of our Air Force which has been engaged in pitched battles with- the enemy has shot down many more enemy aircraft/than we have lost.”