A SWISS REPORT

Hokitika Guardian, 7 December 1940, Page 5

A SWISS REPORT

OF GERMAN RAIDS

ON BRITISH CITIES.

(Per British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, Dec. 5. What is regarded in London as significant evidence that the Germans are not so satisfied with the effects of their night raids on the British provincial cities as their propaganda suggests, is tho fury with which Doctor Goebbcls’ machine has greeted objective reports on these raids in the Swiss papers, and particularly against those from the London correspondent of the “Neue Zurcher Zeitung.” “J. must affirm,” wrote the correspondent, after a visit to Coventry, in the course of which,. he says, he was allowed to go where.he liked and to see everything, “that, as in the ease of London, the German attack on Coventry was aimed, not so much at military objectives such as factories, but far more at terrorisatiori. The centre' of the town, which has been partly levelled to the ground, contained practically no factories, hut only shops and dwellings. Coventry’s productive capacity was more interfered with by the interruption of its water and other services, which is temporary, 'and it now largely regained, than by direct damage to its factories.”

Of Birmingham, the correspondent, after also visiting the city, said: “In relation to the large number of factories in the enormous industrial region around Birmingham, these industrial objectives which have been demolished or damaged represent only a. modest proportion.” Of Bristol, the correspondent said : “The damage here seems to be even more limited.” He concludes: “Why the Luftwaffe adopted, once more, civilian terrorisations tactics, after they had so completely failed at London, is inexplicable. The result in Coventry, too, as I convinced myself in talks with the people of every class, has only deepened a bitter determination to go on with the war.”

The controlled Nazi press bitterly attacks these observations. “In the pay of England” and “Switzerland in Churchill’s service” are typical headlines.

“The croaking of these frogs becomes unbearable,” writes the “Boersen Zeitung.” “This bribed correspondent has committed more than the crime of stupidity,” says the “Volkischer Boebaehter.” It adds dark insinuations of wliat the Nazis will do to revenge themselves on a free press which dares still to exist within reach oF German power. A note struck by the “Frankfurter Zeitung” is a curious illustration cf how easily blatant boastfulness and bullying typical of the Nazi in ascendance will switch back to the whining of a aggrieved victim, which is chax*acteristic of the technique of the Nazi in difficulty. Across its front page this paper writes: “A nation of eighty millions, fighting for its bare existence, finds itself attacked, insulted, and ' slandered by newspapers of a tiny State whose Government claims to be neutral. The nature of this report is manifest infamy for the correspondent that wrote it, the newspaper that printed it, and the Swiss public that tolerates such things.” It is thought in London that such extravagance of attack can only servo to enhance an already high reputation for objectivity and veracity which the Swiss press have long enjoyed.