STILL QUIET

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23491, 31 October 1939, Page 7

STILL QUIET

WESTERN FRONT WINTRY WEATHER SMALL ENEMY ATTACKS GERMANY'S DELAY By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Received October 30, 11.50 p.m.) LONDON, Oct. 30 A French communique from the Western Front states: "It was a quiet night. We repulsed small enemy attacks." The Paris newspaper Le Petit Parisien points out that the weather is at present too bad for offensive operations and aerial activity. It considers Germany is Tiot likely to delay later that February, "one of the best months of the year." Moreover, operations are possible in Holland even during winter. A German High Command communique states there have been no special happenings on the Western Front. One hundred thousand "old soldiers" marched from the barracks and returned to civilian life while icy rain, snow, mud and rising rivers enforced calm on all parts of the front, says a Paris message. Those demobilised were ordered to be ready to return to the colours instantly. Officers and specialists among them remained with the colours.

The start of the demobilisation indicates that the Allied High Command is confident of carrying out the campaign using machines more than men, with the Maginot. fortress troops ready to take the shock of any German offensive.

HITLER WAITS INACTION IN WEST " 1 OPINION IN FRANCE INTERNAL DIFFERENCES NEW YORK, Oct. *29 The contrast between Hitlerfe- past actions and his two months' hesitation in the west is so marked that it cannot be dismissed as part of his plan, says the Paris correspondent of the New York Times.

It is argued in Paris, says the writer, that if Germany was ready to strike with a prospect of success she would have done so long ago. Hitler is always almost hysterically impatient at delay, and it is concluded that the German army was utterly unprepared for the declaration of war by Britain and France.

The-Nazi Foreign Minister, von Ribbentrop, had been assuring the country for months that the British would not fight. Certain internal questions in Germany have complicated matters, and when trouble has occurred within the Nazi Party Hitler has always dropped everything until it has been settled, usually by a further concentration of power in his hands. It is believed he summoned . the district leaders last week to test their loyalty and.to impose further obligations on them.

It is said without confirmation that a purge is proceeding throughout the army, and it is certain that the somersault policy which marked the pact with the Soviet has not more than 50 per cent approval even within the party.

Hitler must straighten out the matter at all costs before he risks a major offensive.

FIRE ON A PIER STATEN ISLAND MYSTERY AIRCRAFT FOR BRITAIN NEAR NEW YORK, Oct. 29 Extra police have been posted on Pier 11, Staten Island, after an allnight fire of mysterious origin. The Lockheed bombers destined for Britain are stored on the adjacent Pier 12, pending the decision of Congress on the arms embargo. ALSACE-LORRAINE AUTONOMISTS SUPPRESSED LONDON, Oct. 29 Tho French Prime Minister, M. Daladier, has banned three AlsaceLorraine autonomist parties which were controlled by Karl Rooms, who was executed as a German spy last Friday. The parties were the key units in the agitation for the separation of AlsaceLorraine from France, says the Paris correspondent of the Associated Press of Great Britain.