UNDER NAZI RULE.

Waipawa Mail, Volume LXVIII, Issue 125, 22 July 1940, Page 3

UNDER NAZI RULE.

THE PLIGHT OF HOLLAND NATION FACED WITH RUIN. LONDON, June 8. What is happening in Holland? How are the people reacting to Nazi rule ? A Dutch journalist, now in England, describes conditions in his country this week in a London newspaper. All the news published in the Dutch newspapers, he says, is supplied by Germany. The invaders also maintain strict control over the news bulletins on the radio, though music by English and non-Aryan composers is still permitted. The 8.8.3. news broadcasts in Dutch are eagerly awaited, but listening must be clone in secret.

The German High Command swiftly plastered the country with huge posters ordering the population to keep calm. The Germans are willing —these posters declare—to co-operate with the Dutch local authorities provided that ‘‘ no action is taken against the Reich, its leaders or any of its soldiers.” Similar posters also announce orders to the people by the Dutch burgomasters “in complete agreement with the German commander. ’ ’ This use of civil authorities to announce such measures shows that the German High Command, for its own sake, is trying to keep life in Holland as normal as possible. No steps are yet being taken to suppress religious services. The Jews feel nervous and stay at home, but there are so far no signs of active persecution.

Trade and industry have come to a standstill. On May 19tli the German High Command ordered all workers to resume their duties. But many factories have been wrecked. The big textile plants in Eastern Holland are intact, but lack of raw ir"“rials prevented l the workers from obeying the German order.

In the province of Bi'abant the textile factories are ruined. The big radio and electrical works in Eindhoven, which used to employ about 30,000 people, have closed down. Dock workers in Rotterdam and Amsterdam find nothing to do. The big ready-made ladies’ clothing industry of Amsterdam, which worked mainly for export, is standing idle. The German High Command has tried to get Fokker’s aeroplane industry and and the munitions factory near Amsterdam going again, but both plants were seriously damaged by Dutch troops before the surrender, and repairs will take tons of material and weeks of labor.

Through this widespread disorganisation the Dutch are in great peril. Their supplies of food and raw materials are taken away from them. The health of the nation is in danger, too. Demobilisation of the Dutch Army has been postponed in order to isolate outbreaks of typhoid. In Rotterdam the whole population has had to he vaccinated against the disease. The German propaganda machine is now promising the Dutch a great war on unemployment. The important group of vegetable growers, which used to export huge quantities, has been told that Germany will buy the whole lot—but at fixed prioM.