Notes on the News Rumanian Fascists

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 6 December 1938, Page 3

Notes on the News Rumanian Fascists

Fourteen former members ot the Rumanian Fascist Iron Guard including their former leader, M. Zelea Codrennn, and tlie murderers of Dr J>uea (a former Premier), were shot dead while trying to escape. The Iron Guard was disbanded by M. Codreaini of his own accord lasi February, when he relieved his followers from their oath of allegiance to the party. But he reorganized the party undeT the name of the All-for-the-Fatherland Party, with himself as leader. The Government immediately banned .t and. on April 17. arrested M. Codreanu and many of his supporters in connection with an alleged plot for a “coup d’etat.” Two days later he was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment by the Bucharest Military Court for having written an insulting letter to Professor lorga, a former Prime Minister and a member of the recentlycreated Crown Council.

On May 23 he again came before thcBucliarest Military Court and was charged with treason, plotting against the social order, and instigating to revolt. ami was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment. Jews In Australia The Australian Commonwealth Government has decided to admit 10,000 European refugees over a period of three years. . The first reference to a Jewish element in Australia was in ISI7, according ro the Australian authority, Mr. J. Lyng, F.R.G.S., when 20 Jews in New s' uih Wales formed themselves into a society for the internment of their dead. The first congregation was formed in 3.SSO of approximately 300 Jews. In 1532 the first synagogue was erected in Sydney, and simultaneously a grant of land was obtained for a burial place. A Hebrew philanthropic society was founded in 1833. and in 1843 a women’s maternity society was organized. This is claimed to be the oldest women’s organization in Australia. The first Jewish newspaper. “The Voice of Jacob.” appeared in 1842 Jews in Victoria in 1840 numbered 317. but the foundation of a synagogue was not laid till 3853. By 1856 the Jews in Victoria numbered about 1500. There were insufficient Jews in South Australia to form a permanent con- | gregation before 1848 and the first synagogue in Adelaide was consecrated iu | 1850. There were Jews in Queensland he- ! fore that .State was separated from New ' South Wales, but not till 1807 was a j cottage in Brisbane fitted up as a j A Jewish congregation was not founded in Perth, Western Australia, till 1892. At one time, in Tasmania the Jews were considered second only to the Jews in Sydney in point <>f numbers. The gold discoveries in Victoria ami New South Wales brought most Jews | to those two State?-. Forty per cent, j of the more than 20.000 Jews In Aus- | tralia live in Sydney. Melbourne lias 33 per cent, of the total. Eighty-seven ' per cent, of the total number in the Commonwealth live in the cities. In j 1921, 30 per cent, of the married ; Jewish men had taken Christian wives, I and 37 per cent, of the married Jewi j women had Christian husbands. During the Great War, Jews served with the Australian forces with distinction, General Sir John Monash being one of the “finds” of the war. German Spy Methods Judge Knox, when sentencing Ger- \ man spies in the United States of j America to imprisonment, commented j on tlie fact that the Germans had shown ! but little improvement over the bung- ! ling efforts of Von Pa pen and Vor Bernstoff during the Great War. Von Pa pen went to Washington in 1913 as military attache. Von Bernstoff was the German Ambassador there. Non Papon immediately engaged in espionage, and in December, 1915, before the United Stares entered the war, he and his colleague, Captain Boy-ed. were expelled from the United States. "It was bad enough for Pa pen to be caught,” said John Gunther. "But he let everyone else be caught. Captain Von Ithmien. a Gorman agent, describes vividly, in a book called ‘The Dark Invader,’ his horror of Pa pen’s carelessness. The American secret service found in the desk of one of his secretaries the key to the German code. Thus the Americans were able to rend German Foreign Office messages. . . . "Papen had sailed for Germany. The ship was searched by the British authorities at Falmouth and his papers j were seized. . . . The young German j military attache had most meticulously retained his cheque books. In neat black ink, on stub after stub —120 in all —were found the names of German secret agents in America. Pa pen was pay-oni man. The cheques linked him to dynamiters and saboteurs. “No man has ever been caught so comprehensively, so drastically. Pa pen had recorded—and preserved—the most precise details of his transactions. lie kept not only the cheque stubs but the cancelled cheques themselves, so that all the endorsements were available for scrutiny and investigation. In addition, dozens of his semi-official letters were found, carefully tiled and assorted in his luggage. One is aghast at the effrontery of a man who could tempt fate so.” Idiot Herr Hitler has said: “There are still people on the Left who say: ‘You can call me an idiot, bur I remain a Communist.* ” The word “idiot” has an interesting history, and shows how words undergo changes, not always to their advantage. The word “idiot” conies from the Greek word “idiotes,” arid meant originally a man in private life, as compared with one occupying an official position (public office, civil or ecclcsi-J astical). From ibis distinction arose another meaning—an uneducated or unlearned person, and therefore one unfitted, to occupy a public position. From there Ihe transition to the present meaning—a human being weak or deficient in understanding; one who is destitute of reason or the intellectual powers—is obvious.