UNREST PREVAILS

Timaru Herald, Volume CLIII, Issue 22475, 9 January 1943, Page 5

UNREST PREVAILS

Sabotage In Balkans

Series Of Big Fires

By Telegraph—N.Z. press Assn.—Copyright LONDON. January 7.

Recent reports from Rumania confirm the statement that restlessness is prevailing in the Balkans, which is daily translated into intensified sabotage, says “The Times” correspondent at Istanbul.

Fires, railway accidents, and the cutting of telephone wires are becoming more frequent. A new decree imposes the death penalty for stealing wire and tampering with communications. Two railway accidents not reported by tile Rumanian newspapers occurred on December 31, ope near Piatra Neamtu and the other, in which a military train was involved, near Jassy. The most recent big fire, which was the last of a series, occurred at the Hercules factory at Sighisoara, causing enormous damage. The security measures at Ploesti and throughout the Parahova region, which have always been severe lately, have been made more stringent. The movement of vehicles and pedestrians is banned between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. All entertainments, including national peasant dances, are banned. This all points to the Germans’ fear of a Rumanian reaction to the appalling losses in Russia. The German Minister at Bucharest is reported to have assured the Rumanian Government that there is nothing to fear regarding the military situation on the eastern front. The fact that it was necessary to give such an assurance is most significant in itself and probably contributed still more to the alarm of Rumanian opinion.