EUROPEAN REACTION

Grey River Argus, 13 October 1941, Page 2

EUROPEAN REACTION

Against Nazis (Rec. 5.30.) LONDON, October 11. Fifteen were sentenced to death in Prague and 'Brno to-day. Prague radio says Herr Heyd'ric has dissolved the Sokol organisation, and confiscated its property throughout the country. The German News Agency says: Karl Laznovsky, editor of the “Ceskoslovo” died as the result of poisoning. Several other Czech editors freindly to Germany are also ill from poisoning. The Agency also stated that foreign broadcasts had agitated for a long time against these editors, and demanded that they “be made harmless.” The Stockholm “Tidingen’s” Berlin correspondent, says: The Lithuanian Activist Movement, which helped Germany to conquer Lithuania, has been dissolved, and the funds confiscated. The leader, Prapolernis Gaole, said the movement lost four thousand fighting for Germany during the occupation of Lithuania. (Rec. 10.15.) MOSCOW, October 11. The radio announced Herr Terboven was threatening German annexation of Norway owing to constant disturbaces. The Tass (Russian) News Agency says: Otto Strasser, leader of the anti-Nazi front, has arrived in Lisbon from Canada to confer with members of his organisation who recently escaped from Germany. (Rec. 11.15.) LONDON, October 12. The Moscow Radio reported, from Istanbul, that ten soldiers, including two members of General Antonescu’s personal guard' had been arrested for an attempt to kill General Antonescu. The Swiss Radio said a court martial at Travnik in Bosnia, sentenced to death twenty-four Communists, and commuted the sentence of eleven of them to five years’ imprisonment. A Jew and a student were shot in Sarajevo for Communist propaganda A man, when he was asked in a Zagreb street for his identity card, drew a revolver and shot a policeman and wounded another policeman and a soldier, who pursued and finaly killed him.

French Resistance RUGBY, October 10. Facts about the passionate resistance to the Nazis’ religious persecutions in Lorraine have just reached Free French circles in London. More than 300 priests in this region have been expelled, it is stated, and so uncompromising have the” been in their refusal to collaborate that m the great city of Metz there are today only three priests, while the densely-populated district of C.iateau Salins and Dieuze are served by one or two travelling “missionaries.” The Gestapo ousted nuns from convents and then tried to persuade them to teach in Germany. The attitude of the nuns towards this ultimatum was summed up by the simple statement of a Franciscan sister who was sent to Germany and later managed to make her way back to France. “I could not teach in a German school without losing my faith,” she said. The Nazis attempt to blind French eyes to the religious persecution uy blaming the churches for Frances troubles. No trick is too mean to futher this end. The distribution of ration cards is arranged for Sunday mornings, when everyoouv would be normally at mass. Those who do not come until later <mt no cards. Near Dieuze, the police on one such occasion tried to prevent a funeral procession from entering a church by locking the door and saying that burials should take place without any religious service. ±iie peasants in the procession refused to argue. They carmlv went home and returned with their axes and smashed in the church door Z t Chateau Salins ’ the Gestapo again tried to abolish services by locking a church. The officiating priest refused to be intimidated. He entered by a side door, forced the main entrance, rang the church bells, and began his sermon before a huge congregation by saying: “This is my church, and after my God and my bishop I muster here.” He spoke in French, which is strictly forbidden by the German authorities. So popular is this priest that the Gestapo’s

agents are , unwilling to arrest mm. They are desperately afraid of creating too many martvrs. Thousands throughout Britain associated with the Free French movement are wearing on their iepels a small Croix de Lorraine in red, white, and blue, with the words ‘Trance Libre.” Behind each cross is stamped a number corresponding to the number on a similiar cross in tne pocession of a French man or woman in occupied France. finev are tin able to wear their crosses openly, but keep them for the day when they can rejoin, the Briusn agamst Hitler. The crosses are made in England, and it is a Free French secret how each number reaches its opposite. Wearers keep contact by wireless and frequent talks are broadcast in dialect to each department of France. Atrocities in Crete RUGBY, October 10. Mr. Churchill has received from M. Tsouderos, Greek Prime Minister, an account of the. German atrocities in Crete forwarded from Cairo by the Greek War Minister. Mr. Churchill, in reply, expressed his horror at the perpetrated by the Germans. The message from Cairo says: After the capture of Crete, th e German Army burnt to th e ground the villages of Skine, Brasse and Kandanos. Their sites are marked by posters bearing the inscription, “Here once stood Skine, Brasse and Kandanos.’ Tne Germans looted every single house and store in'the towns and villages, leaving them empty of every single object. Thev proceeded to innumerable murders of people flying for safety in the open country, of. children and old people asleep m their homes, and collective executions after summary parodies of trial. The< condemned people were forced to dig their common grave before execution At Kystona, the wounded during the evacuation were buried while still alive. Their families were forced to offer dinners to the murderers of their bwn husbands, fathers and brothers, and suffer the mocking jests o? the feasting Germans. A curate of Roumation, as well as the abbot of the monks monastery at Aghai Gonda, were put to death. The altar of the church of Manolio was desecrated by the Germans. The surviving inhabitants, some 800 women and children, from Lower Cydonia, were seen being marched through the Rethymno district, and a police sergeant at Ipiatzakis was tortued to death, his limbs mmw wrenched off one bv one, with tne object of forcing him to denounce the holders of German rifles At Erivalia Den Silva, in the Rethymno district, people were executed one b v one, in the presence of others also condemned to death, and their relations, after having been forced to dig their own graves. At Heraklion, the Prefect was executed and Colonel Tsatsaronakis met the same fate, because he tried to help the persecuted to escape. in the same place, five more Greeks were executed, because they failed to declare they knew German. According to available information, the number of executions in Canea totalled 506, in the Rethymno district 130, and in Heraklion 50. The male population of the island; especially in western Crete, has taken to the mountains in arms. The message is signed “S. Dimtra Kakis. Minister of War.” The Greek Minister of Information stated in London, to-day, that the resistance of the Cretans to the Germans had been very considerable, particularly in the mountains, where guerrilla bands were still active. They included British and Dominion troops, who had escaped to the mountains at the time of the evacuation of Crete. The Minister added that his Government was completely satisfied with the authenticity of the accounts of the German atrocities.