TERROR IN GERMANY

Greymouth Evening Star, 19 November 1943, Page 5

TERROR IN GERMANY

DEFEATISTS EXECUTED , NO BELIEF IN VICTORY LONDON, November 18. , The Berlin radio has quoted Buschmann, editor of a Stettin newspaper, saying: “Years of success have spoiled us. We fancied we could end the struggle without even feeling the scourge of war in our own country. We at present see things quite differently from when our troops were approaching the Nile Delta and the mouth of the Volga. It is no use indulging in illusions about the gravity of the situation. Much more territory may be lost. But, even if the war mus„ be fought on German soil, and many towns razed, there cannot, and must not arise, the slightest sign of weakness.” The radio also quoted from a leader in the “Mansheimer Zeitung”: "We are experiencing with increasing profundity the reality of what war means in practice. The number of families who have lost sons, fathers, and brothers is growing. Only now do we really know what war means.” An absolute regime of terror reigns in Germany under Himmler, according to the Turkish ' newspaper “Yatan,” says the Istanbul correspondent of “The Times.” Quoting what it describes as unimpeachable sources, the paper reports that executions for acts or words of defeatism total 100 daily. “The majority of offenders are excuted for trifling offences,” says the paper. “Punishment is obviously not meant to be in any proportion to the offence, but an example to inspire terror. The Nazis do not trust either the army or the police. The Gestapo and Storm Troopers are entrusted with the protection of the regime. Scarcely two persons in 100 believe in German victory. Even the story of a secret weapon with which Britain would be destroyed overnight is derided. Even jokes about the German Army’s ‘elastic retreats’ are now regarded as treasonable and punishable by death.”

BRITISH EXPERT’S WARNING (Rec. 12.30 p.m.) . MELBOURNE, November 19. “On the facts made public, there seemed little justification for indulging in the fancy that Russia would overrun Germany in the next few months,” said Major-General Dewing, Commander of the United Kingdom Army liaison staff in Australia. “As yet there were no reports of wholesale German surrenders and the number of German prisoners the Russians claim to have taken does not yet indicate any disintegration of the German armies.” _ He added that comparatively fewpeople believe air action alone could cause Germany to surrender unconditionally. Germany will collapse under the. cumulative effect of many forms of attack. The Allied air bombardment from the United Kingdom was highly important, however, and should reach its maximum scale next year. “We should not allow familiarity with the talk of invasion of Europe to blind us to its difficulties. History holds no precedent tor so vast a seaborne operation.”