Manawatu Evening Standard. SATURDAY, DEC. 15, 1945. CRIMES IN GERMANY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXVI, Issue 15, 15 December 1945, Page 6

Manawatu Evening Standard. SATURDAY, DEC. 15, 1945. CRIMES IN GERMANY.

The story lias been, told at tbe Nuremberg trial of the exhaustive manner in which the Nazis scoured Europe for slave labour to maintain their war machine at its fullest pitch. What the American prosecutor had to say was a grim recital of the evil doings of bad men. It had reference to the drive in the Ukraine at the end of 1942 and early in the following year, and later in other Russian territories. “A wild and ruthless hunt” resulted in the Nazi rulers, of 'the Ukraine doing their job as efficiently as it was done elsewhere to provide Germany by the beginning. of 1945 with four million foreign workers from 14 different nationalities, and of this huge number onlv 200,000 voluntarily offered to work for Hitler. This influx of slave labour was one of the Allies’ greatest problems on Germany’s defeat and its repercussions are being recorded in several ways, not the least disturbing being the numerous crimes,daily occurring throughout the country. The root of all trouble in occupied Germany, a London journalist recorded after a month there, is the displaced person, the civilian captive brought as slave labour from occupied countries. Field-Mar-shal Montgomery has given full endorsement to this view. Speaking in London some weeks ago he said that the Military Government Courts had tried, no fewer than 8000 cases in two months and that displaced persons were paying off old scores to some tune.

In Field-Marshal . Montgomery’s opinion crime in Germany is more likely to increase than decrease. Another correspondent has written upon this subject, pointing to the nujnber of Poles who have been tried in the British zone, some having been sentenced to death and executed. A few days ago a Cologne message reported the sentence of death upon a Pole for the illegal possession of fire-arms, the President of the Court stating that there was only one sentence whether the accused was a German or any other national. This' correspondent also gave emphasis to the fact that in the British and American zones the forced labourers from Eastern Europe were giving -trouble enough to wear out the patience of officers of the Military Government. The trouble arises chiefly from the fact that_ these men have practically nothing to do. They refuse work and roam the country, remembering their privations under the Nazis and objecting to take some form of service „„ with the British and American authorities. They desire to pay off old scores against the Germans and take whatever opportunity is presented to do so. This problem was long foreseen and the very large number of cases tried, and still daily recurring, points to its complexities. Moreover, these men do not evince any desire to return to their own . countries where political conditions are unstable. Germans too have taken advantage of these circumstances to steal, plunder, and murder, and add to the dilemma of the authorities. Not until a solution of their case has been reached does it appear likely that the problem of these foreign workers will disappear;