CZECH ZONE ARMY

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 19892, 21 March 1939, Page 5

CZECH ZONE ARMY

CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS POSSIBLE CONSCRIPTION PLIGHT OF PRAGUE JEWS ANGLO-AMERICAN- AID (Reed. March 21, !) a.m.) LONDON, March 20. An Independent Cable Service message from Prague states that ail Germans in the protectorate are asked to volunteer for army service. They are offered compensatory exemption from the "volunteer" labour service. If the appeal does' not succeed it is understood that all Germans aged between 20 and 40 years will be called up. This is expected to produce 400,000 men, who will be equipped with Czech arms, with which most of them have been trained. The production of the Skoda works is to be reserved exclusively for the German army and navy, while other factories are to supply 'the protectorate army. Nazis in Prague have closed Jewish organisations and are banning Jews from factories. Wholesale arrests include the majority of the Jewish leaders. Two squares have been re-named Adolf Hitler, while Wilson Square has become Goering Square. The Prague correspondent of The Times says l that the British and American Ministers have under discussion the formation of a refugee camrap at Gdynia for Czechoslovak fugitives, pending their departure for England and America. Three hundred who were furnished l with British visas and labour permits are hiding in the woods, fearing arrest, while the Britons who provided them with the permits refuse Ito disclose their addresses to the Germans. AFRICAN PRECAUTIONS ARMY LEAVE STOPPED NAVAL OONCENTRATION (Independent Cable Service.) (Reed. March 21, 9 a.m.) CAPETOWN, March 20. The precautions taken by the Government of South Africa include the cancelling of all defence force leave and warning all defence reservists to be available within 24 hours; also the authorities are concentrating the African squadron at Simonstown, the naval base near Capetown. It is revealed that the German note of last week stated that if permission for German migrants to land were withheld, the Germans would not be responsible for the consequences. A guard is mounted at the Pretoria .steelworks, which employs a number of Germans. A Johannesburg message states that the name plates of the Czechoslav Legation were removed and a swastika drawn on the door. The police are investigating: It is stated that the Consulate was not being handed to Germany. TRADE TREATY ENDING INTENTION OF FRANCE (Rocd. Mar. 21, 12 noon.) PARIS, Mai-. 20. The French Cabinet is reported to have decided to denounce the recentlysigned commercial treaty with Czechoslovakia on the grounds that it now will merely facilitate German exports.