ORDERED TO REGISTER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25215, 3 May 1943, Page 3

ORDERED TO REGISTER

DUTCH OFFICERS AND MEN EVIDENCE OF NAZI FEARS RUGBY, Apl. 30. Radio Orange, on the authority of the Dutch Government in London, has broadcast strongly-worded advice to Holland to disregard German instructions that all officers, n.c.o.’s, and men in the former Dutch Army are to register preparatory to being sent back to prisoner of war camps. Radio Orange described it as the “ most serious attack ever made by Germans on the Dutch people,” and warned, “ only mass resistance and mass refusal to register can be successful.” Radio Orange pointed out that the order was probably due to the growing resistance in Holland against the Nazis and the shortage of man-power in Germany. Those who registered would, first, sooner or later be transferred to German prison camps; secondly, forced to work in Germany; and, thirdly, forced to form a kind of military legion under the leadership of German officers or Dutch traitors for police services somewhere in Europe. The Stockholm correspondent of the British United Press points out that about 500,000 men are affected if all the Dutch officers and men are brought in under the new German order. He adds that the Gestapo has already rounded up thousands in the past 48 hours. The Germans have ordered the registration because numerous incidents have cast doubts on Dutch loyalty in the event of British action.