INCREASING UNREST

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 4 August 1941, Page 5

INCREASING UNREST

OCCUPIED COUNTRIES IN EUROPE Martial Law Declared in Norway GERMAN FEARS OF INVASION AND SABOTAGE London, Aug. 2. A state ot civil emergency has been declared in Norway and martial law imposed, says the Stockholm correspondent of the British United Press. Ihe Germans are carrying out invasion tests in Nor way, and thousands of civilians have been evacuated from Stavanger, I laugesund and other areas and sent inland. Because of the exercises all coastal shipping lias ceased. Uxtensive artillery tests are being made. The Germans arrested 5000 Norwegians for demonstrating in favour of alleged saboteurs. German fears of a possible British invasion of the Continent are revealed in a message to “The limes. ’ It reports that powerful steel anti-tank barriers in Belgium which were erected to block the German invasion have been moved to coastal areas in the hope of making a British invasion impossible.

An Istanbul message yesterday said ; that General List, who commanded the Balkan campaign, is believed to have been withdrawn from the Russian | front. He was seen in Athens and in Sofia last week. It is believed that General List has been sent on a mission to appraise the 'situation in the Balkans and estimate whether there is danger of a British j landing in Greece. It is significant that j the Germans are fortifying Mount Olympus. The Zurich correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph” says that peasants’ i revolts have broken out in Yugoslavia, and sabotage is increasing. The Germans shot 480 saboteurs in one day, and a state of siege has been declared. Sabotage is also increasing in Poland. Twenty alleged British agents have | been imprisoned in Vienna. Mr Alfred Thomson, formerly United Slates Consul in Hamburg, said he understood that it was saboteurs who j caused fires that completely burnt out , the insides of the liners Bremen and : Europa.—U.P.A. j News reaching London from various sources and areas of the Germanoccupied territory in Europe suggests [that anti-Nazi activities of the people in these countries are on the increase. The vast scale of the war against Russia must have compelled Germany to mobilise the largest forces in her power for the Eastern Front, and it , is considered here as certain, that the I German forces in the occupied territory must have been reduced to the limit that the Nazi authorities deemed 'safe. It is considered doubtful, indeed, if Germany possesses manpower sufficiently adequate to police the whole of occupied Europe and at the same I time conduct a full-scale war against Russia. For instance, the news that General List has been sent from the Russian front to Athens has confirmed j the impression that the Germans are seriously worried about the situation in the Balkans and that they doubt [the ability of their satellites to perfrvr.i properly the duties of gendarmes ! in the conquered countries. ONE GARRISON INCREASED Reports agree that Yugoslavia, Greece and even Bulgaria are meeting with unrest. Yugoslav rebel bands are increasingly active in committing sabotage, and it is reported that the Germans have been forced to send 25,000 men back into the country to maintain The reports show that the Greeks 100, are becoming restive. The Germans have given up sounding alarms of R.A.F. raids on aerodromes in Greece because it had become an occasion of popular rejoicing, with cheering crowds surging on to the roofs of the houses. The Germans also fear I that the situation in Bulgaria might get uncomfortable if their failure in Russia becomes more pronounced. Elsewhere in the occupied territories resistance is crystallising. A wave of strikes is sweeping Holland, with the Dutch people successfully preventing the Germans from transporting food from Holland to Germany. A

number of journalists have been ar I rested and some newspapers have been 1 suspended. Workers in armament factories are reported to have been turning out faulty arms, and in this connection many arrests have been made. 1 Acts of sabotage by Belgian workmen are also said to be becoming almost commonplace. OPEN HOSTILITY’ IN NORTH In Denmark the secret police have their hands full in investigating acts such as the cutting of surface cables of the German occupation forces, especially in Jutland. The antipathy toward the Germans is now so pronounced that the occupying troops have been heard to complain that their loi is harder than that of their comrades in Poland and Czechoslovakia because the people of Denmark are just like ice. It is reported that a light developed between German marines and civilians in the port of Aalesunnd, Norway, when Norwegians fried to prevent the deportation of about 70 hostages who had been collected from the city and its environs and were to be taken away in a guarded steamer at a secret time. The latest isucs of the illegal Norwegian newspaper, “Det Frif Norge,” have been printed and distributed in amazingly large editions, and it is reported that no Norwegian newspaper has ever attained a higher circulation. The paper appears regularly, and attempts by the Gestapo to stop it 1 have been completely fruitless. In spite of repeated raids on printers in Oslo and observation of persons believed to be connected with "Det Frif | Norge,” the paper is still appearing without interruption. It has an anonymous editor and collaborators of a high standard. To-day’s announcement by the Reich | Commissioner for the occupied Nor- ; wegian territory that a state of emer--1 gency exists throughout Norway will therefore, cause no surprise.—B.O.W.