PRESSURE ON NEUTRALS

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20995, 23 December 1939, Page 9

PRESSURE ON NEUTRALS

TROOPS ON FRONTIERS BELGO-DUTCH POSITION NOT OUT OF THE WOOD (Times Air Mail Service) LONDON, Nov. 26 It seems clear that Belgium and Holland are by no means “out of the wood,” comments Major-General A. C. Temperley, Military Correspondent of the Sunday Times. Further pressure is likely to be exerted on both to permit the free passage of German ’planes over their territory and to get them under the Nazi wing by protests against Britain’s reprisals to the German policy of indiscriminate mining. Neutrals are scared at their losses in tonnage, and for the present some of them are holding their ships back. But the Low Countries are in for a difficult time, as it is a delicate matter to side with Britain on this issue when hostility to Germany may involve invasion. I do not think that this would be remunerative against Holland and Belgium together, particularly at this time of year, but there is always an “if” about German strategy—the risk of some mad brain-wave by Hitler over-riding the sober views of the High Command. Too Early for Revolution The large concentration of German forces against the Dutch-Belgian frontier which existed a fortnight ago has not been dispersed, and its employment is still a possibility. Europe has been horrified at the brutality with which the Czechs have been treated by the Gestapo, which has excelled itself. Large numbers of troops have also been taken from their duties to reinforce the police. The Czechs have had much experience of resistance to Governments that they detested. M. Masaryk has, however, said that the present time is too early for a revolution, and that is true. But the people will do all they can to distract Germany from her chief aim, the prosecution of the war. In none of these ill-gotten provinces and dependencies is there anything less than covert rebellion. In Slovakia, in particular, the outlook has steadily deteriorated since the pro-German element was induced to ’ march against Poland.