“SLIGHTLY MORE OPTIMISTIC”

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21553, 16 January 1940, Page 5

“SLIGHTLY MORE OPTIMISTIC”

Uneventful Week-End

Holland’s Defences Complete

United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright (Received January 5, 10.55 p.m.) BRUSSELS, January 15. The outlook is slightly more optimistic as the week-end passed without event. Troop trains are running all night and some civilians are being evacuated from the frontier districts in the vicinity of Liege. Motor-cars, buses, carriages, cycles and horses have been requisitioned. Armed guards have been established at public buildings. The Press Bureau has been closed and the general staff of the army is issuing all information. There has been unusual air activity. The public have been warned to be in readiness for a black-out. A message from The Hague states that Holland’s defences are more complete than they were last November. Many areas kept permanently flooded are icebound. The waterways have started to thaw but the inundations are not likely to bear any weight for a day or two. According to unconfirmed reports the Germans have collected a fleet of barges and flatbottomed boats for carrying machineguns and men. Two German spies have been arrested, one for allegedly transmitting weather reports from a radio in a car and the other for endeavouring to procure large quantities of motor tyres. There has been a large round-up of foreigners in Amsterdam. Informed quarters in Beilin describe the precautions by Belgium and the Netherlands as “another epidemic of fear based on false reports.”