IN THE SHADOW OF WAR

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23918, 20 September 1939, Page 3

IN THE SHADOW OF WAR

SIGNS OF PREPARATION IN EUROPE The following, written by a former resident of Dunedin, now living in Holland, and dated August 28, affords an impression of the preparations that were being made in Europe against the contingency of war: — We have just arrived back in Holland. in the nick of time, it seems, after a three weeks’ motoring trip in Belgium. France Italy, Switzerland, and Germany. Everywhere, beginning with Roermond, in Holland, our peaceloving eyes saw the preparations for defence! Tank stops, like giants’ round cheeses, made of concrete, were set across roads. A gap just allowed us through. Other “ traps ” were concrete posts set at an acute angle to the enemy, so that the tank could not use its clever caterpillar wheels and climb up. Some roads had slots in them which could be opened at a moment’s notice, so that more of these posts might be placed in them.

A railway bridge, set at an angle across the way, would have half of its under side filled in, that inner corner which could not be easily seen. We became quite used to the sight of blockhouses daubed in green, grey, and yellow, and camouflaged to look like part of the landscape. Soldiers regarded us from some of these —or they stood there apparently deserted for an unwary foe. Bridge heads were guarded, and even after we were over the Dutch border at the end of the holiday we had to show passports at various oridges. In Belgium we looked at an old battlefield near Chalons-sur-Marne, Rheims, with its > restored cathedral, was in the distance. A pyramid-shaped memorial marked the remains of hundreds of soldiers. We could have jumped the grass-grown trenches and tripped in the rusty barbed wire.. We hurried away, shocked to think that all that needless waste of good life might soon be repeated. I could not sleep at Tain I’Hermitage, in the Rhone Valley, for military vans and lorries went and roaring past all night. At Frejus, on the Mediterranean coast seaplanes lay on the water, and we could have almost swum out to them. We found some of their oil on our hands and feet after we came out from bathing. In pretty Avignon it was Moroccans who looked with interest at the English car. Later, at Menton. Chasseurs Alpine;? in faded blue uniforms tried to say her name. Still later, dark-faced Italians sent her through their Customs at Grimaldi, with a minimum of trouble and a joke for the halting Italian of her occupants. and later still it was Swiss or German soldiers who looked after her or hailed her. Soldiers were everywhere!

Yet nowhere did we find anybody who wanted war! Even at Geisenheim in the Rhine country, where Nazi boys were gathered under a linden tree making ready for a route march, we were met with friendliness. One of us chatted with these same lads later in the evening and was asked to exchange stamps. Finally when we left the final German Customs and entered Holland again, the car was filled up with water from the officer’s can! It gives one a queer feeling now to read that troops were stationed in the Black Forest and one never had a hint of it. though later troops were to be seen doing manoeuvres in the fields.

In Italy we went as far as Rapallo. Signor Mussolini’s savings were painted up on walls and houses or simply *he words,- “ Duce, Duce, Duce! ” Italy seemed quiet and unstirred, and we saw less war preparation there than anywhere. In the list of great men through the ages in the Leonardo Da Vinci Exhibition in Milan, the final name was that of the Italian leader. Petrol was just twice as dear in Italy as it was in Franco. We have since read that it has gone up further.-in nrice and that tourist cars are no longer free to come and go In Germany, pump after purrm was marked “emptv,” and in places we could get only five litres. We were _ told that it was being saved for military purposes. This has since been confirmed in the papers. We could not buy “Shell” of any grade. Tourist cars can have no petrol at all now there, and even here we could buy none last evening. The thing which brought home to us the horror of war was the bridge at Strasbourg—German Customs on one side, French on the other On the German side were barbed wire entanglements, tank stops and soldiers. On the French side were “pill boxes and a gun pointing across the bridge. We were well looked at by the German officer, and had to walk up and stand before him while he made sure we were those on the passports.

Here, where a German-Jew boy refugee waits upon us at the table, and is learning English and reading eagerly any articles dealing with h’.s own particular problem: where I received only the other dav a propaganda letter with the ill-fated stamp of Danzig upon it, sent to New Zealand House and readdressed; where crowds of young men were being seen off at the tram two days ago and piles of guns and o.her war kit were lying on the ground before them; where ' farmers have already brought in their horses for sale to the army; where the birth of a new princess is spoiled by the unrest that threatens us; where one hears nothing but war news in every tongue through the radio: here, we wait and wonder. Can any nation be so blind and unenlightened as to bring +he world into another war?