HEROIC PEOPLE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24735, 11 October 1941, Page 16

HEROIC PEOPLE

CZECHS FIGHT ON WIDESPREAD SABOTAGE A RELENTLESS CAMPAIGN LONDON, Oct. 5. Czechoslovakia’s campaign of organised resistance against German tyranny is a story of an heroic people fighting effectively without weapons against an armed and brutal enemy who holds control of their country at every point. For two years and a-half the Germans have tried to bludgeon the Czech people into passive obedience and Ahe renunciation of their national being. Yet the only result has been to stiffen this hardy race in their resistance and • to force the people of Czechoslovakia into a wholehearted campaign of sabotage which Heydrich and his firing squads have been sent to suppress. A measure of Czechoslovakia’s success in her fight for freedom is that industrial workers, guided by their Government in London, succeeded in reducing their production for the German war rtiachine by 30 to 40 per cent. At a time when Germany is needing every shell for the eastern front this makes a positive contribution to victory. A Spanner in the Works From long experience of working against foreign masters, the Czechs have developed go-slow methods to a fine art. An important industrial works’ file containing an order for the German Army mysteriously disappeared, and it was a week before the loss was discovered. Production was delayed for a week. Another file containing orders to be cancelled was mislaid, and for two full months the entire works continued to turn out useless parts. When the staff of a great factory was ordered to search for missing alloys, the searchers causeo such confusion that work was stopped for several days. And the latest news of sabotage reported in the Russian communique of September 30 is thai the Skoda works stopped production for three days when a depot loaded with ammunition for Germany was set on fire. , Slip-shod work is a continual cause of trouble and delay for the Germans. Of 200 pistons despatched as correct, 190 were returned as defective. At a munition factory 20,000.000 rounds of ammunition in one delivery were dangerously mixed up through careless sorting and work had to bo held up until they were put in order. Even when orders have left the factories there is no guarantee they will reach their destination. In spite of armed railway guards sabotage is so common that the Germans dare no longer use Czechoslovakian railways. “ One of Hitler’s problems is that sabotage will continue for generations if necessary. As one Czech said to mo the othpr day: ‘lt took us 1000 years to get our freedom last time. We are used to fighting that way.’ Masaryk is convinced that nothing will hold down Czechoslovakia and she will one day live as a free country.” (American broadcast, July 25, 1941.) The Slow-down The declaration of a state of emergency on September 13 in six provinces of Czechoslovakia is a culminating point of Czech resistance It is the measure of the German failure to lead and govern another nation. If

Hitler had intended to unmask before the eyes of the world the hideous imposture of the “ New Order ’’ he could have chosen no better instrument for his purpose than the man and measures just introduced into Czechoslovakia. . _ Traitors have failed in their loathsome mission and the fate of the puppet Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia has shown them what happens to failures under the Nazi “New Order.’’ “On the instruction of the deputy Reich-Prolector Storm-Truppen Fuehrer Heydrich, the Premier of the autonomous protectorate Government Elias, has been arrested for high treason and treason against his country and has been committed for trial by the Reich People’s Court.” (German home broadcast. September 29, 1941.) They realise as the Russian war goes on unabated that their hopes of an overwhelming Nazi victory are disappearing over the horizon. They have no illusions as to what will follow a Nazi defeat. No wonder the Quislings are looking over their shoulders.