THE WAR AND THE NEUTRALS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23941, 17 October 1939, Page 3

THE WAR AND THE NEUTRALS

SYMPATHIES OF DUTCH PEOPLE The following has been written for the Daily Times, under date September 11, by a former resident of Dunedin, now living in Holland:— When the Fuhrer finished speaking, the tension in the room snapped suddenly. People breathed again. His decree that it was to be war with Poland caused no surprise. It came from a nation upon whose word apparently, we can .never depend, from a country which cannot rest contented, but must seize and seize. Now, that mentality which expected a smaller people to accept unknown terms, cannot understand the motives which have caused more than one nation to step into unwanted and dreaded bloodshed to help a weaker state and uphold principles Germany has never bothered to consider. We are attacked daily, our statesmen, war leaders and methods, from German stations, in English. This is, we discover, a new and powerful method of warfare, and alas, use the radio for similar purposes. Yet it seemed that Hitler had missed his real psychological moment when he did not strike immediately after his bombshell of the Russian-German nonaggression pact. Simple people began to hope against hope that some eleventh hour miracle would prevent war. The deus-ex-machina did not descend! Since 5.45 on September 1 bombs have fallen on Polish towns, guns have thundered, and war has eaten up the land. When the first announcement came through, a German lady whose eyes have none of the joy of life in them (she and her husband had to leave their home some time ago), said to me, "You hear? There is no enthusiasm in their cheering. The people do not want to fight! '* She confirmed what we saw for ourselves in our recent trip in Germany The people we came in contact with, were kindness itself. We had been told there, by a German citizen, that the taking of Czechoslovakia could not be understood or excused by numbers of people. We met those who would have willingly sold us petrol if they could—but had to comply with the strict orders. Let it be said that my first paragraph applies to the Nazi section of Germany, not the uninformed citizen, who, if he should listen to another country's views and explanations, is put in prison or shot. Hans, a German Jew refugee boy, who serves us at the table here, has been ill from excitement for the last week. He thinks, simply, that if we win the war, he can go back home again. He hopes we will hurry up and do it. Gunther, another refugee, has been In trouble for taking flour and other supplies. He said he wanted them for his people who are still in a German town, and hungry. Yet we were told recently by Germany that she has plenty of supplies. We wonder! The bread we had in Germany was not good. It was of poor quality, watery, and we thought it may have been made from last year's potato crop. Now, we find ourselves debating how the soldiers can fight so well on the food we think they must surely have to eat, and pitying them. When I expressed concern after our first propaganda dropping in Germany, the crowded tableful in the pension here laughed. I strained by ears to catch the different fragments of conversation, spoken in the throaty, difficult tongue of Holland. I gathered that certain anti-aircraft guns in neutral countries can look the other way, the same as human beings. I felt there was no doubt which way the sympathy of at least 20 Dutch people lay. Yet, after having seen those preparations for defence that the man in the street is allowed to view, after having drawn the curtains and lit a little candle so that I should not be in complete darkness during an air raid practice, I came to this conclusion: Should Germany or England really try to step over Holland, the task would not be so simple as was perhaps imagined!