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Show Terrible Hatreds Kindled 7 By 'Blood Revenge' Spirit CL ;A A Rumors From Embattled Nations Hint of , j Plans for Organized Extermination Of Enemy Peoples. f " 1 By BAUKIIAGE News Analyst and Commentator. WNU Service, Union Trust Building, Washington, D. C. It was a soft, Washington spring afternoon. The late shifts of government gov-ernment workers were hurrying home. The two guardian magnolias that stand on the White House lawn were tipped with the rays of the letting sun. My thoughts were neither nei-ther on this blissful scene nor on the latest news of the battlefront which I had just finished broadcasting. broadcast-ing. Frankly, I was concerned chiefly chief-ly with dinner. The announcer was just finishing the "commercial" and I was picking my hat up from the sofa in the tudio when I saw the engineer beckoning beck-oning to me from behind the glass wall of his goldfish bowl. He held up a paper on which was printed "Stop in News Room Important!" I did. The atmosphere was tense as It Is frequently these days. A notice had just appeared on the news ticker to the effect that the White House was about to release an important im-portant statement. It Is possible, but not probable, that the thing we were all thinking that statement was going to announce an-nounce but didn't, will happen before be-fore these lines reach print the invasion in-vasion of Europe. Until it does, we shall continue to expect It and while the busy home front keeps our nose pretty well to the grindstone, one hint from overseas and an atmosphere atmos-phere of suspense envelops the Capitol. Secrecy's Curtain Meanwhile, there is the feeling that tremendous things are happening happen-ing under a heavy curtain of secrecy In Europe even the hint of which does not reach the press or the public. pub-lic. Russia, of course, is a mystery. What is happening there? Is the remarkable Red army, which in the past has seemed to be able to draw endless men and supplies from nowhere no-where after each crushing defeat, finally exhausted? Spring came early ear-ly to the steppes this year and the Germans, if they are able, will launch their annual summer offensive offen-sive a month earlier. They hope to be able to break the Red army this time and then hold back the remnants rem-nants with a sparsely manned but Intricate line of defense while they turn their attention to the Allies in the West. No one knows what the strength of Russia is today. One does know that a terrible hate has been enkindled enkin-dled in the whole race against the Germans and it is reported that the Red army has threatened that if Soviet forces ever do reach German soil, they will leave no human being living. One story has been spread through Switzerland that if an Allies' Al-lies' army is on the continent when Russia breaks Germany's eastern frontiers if she does that the Germans Ger-mans will open their western front to the Allies and let them in rather than expose themselves to the Russians. Rus-sians. Plan for Prisoners Another report has seeped out of Russia. It is continuously repeated that simply because of the inconvenience incon-venience of caring for prisoners, both the Germans and Russians have been shooting men who are Captured or who surrender. On the other hand, the Russians are said to be carefully preserving some of the men they take. Russian propaganda, propagan-da, dropped over the German lines, is very alluring. Some of the pamphlets pam-phlets instruct the German soldiers to surrender and bring with them the leaflet which acts as a passport. Then, according to a report which has come in from a neutral country, the prisoners are carefully examined exam-ined and a small percentage weeded out for Soviet indoctrination. They go through a long course of instruction instruc-tion so careful that it is said finally only 10 per cent are accepted as satisfactory. These elite are then trained to be used as the spearhead of a political invasion of Germany. Hatred, like that in Russia, has poisoned all Europe. There is a belief be-lief now on the part of many of the conquered countries that the Germans, Ger-mans, having given up hope of victory, vic-tory, intend to go forward with a systematic extermination of other races within their reach, as they have in Poland and with the Jews, so that regardless of what happens, the Teutonic stock will dominate numerically when the war is over. To meet this, the other nations are talking about turning the tables and beginning organized mass murder of Germans everywhere the moment the Nazi armies lay down their arms. Only the other day, I talked with a widely traveled Russian newspaper newspa-per man, who said frankly that he believed this was the proper course. How powerful this spirit of blood revenge really is and whether it will be carried out, one can only guess. Another mystery of which there are only tiny hints is the power and scope of the underground movements move-ments in the occupied countries and the extent to which Allied agents are now working hand-in-hand with the saboteurs In France and Belgium and particularly Holland. Hints leak out. Saboteurs A secret German report which reached Allied hands stated the following: fol-lowing: "Sometime ago, English parachutists parachut-ists landed near Prague. When they were held up by the local police, they obeyed the order, 'hands up.' But they carried a special device on their belts with a pistol from which cords ran to their hands. The latter fired the pistol. Thus they succeeded by a quick and appropriate appro-priate movement in accounting for the policemen." Here is a part of another enemy report, revealing the activities behind be-hind the lines. It came through Italian military channels: "During the attack on the Fuka Aerdrome (Africa) the enemy Allied troops put up distress signals. They succeeded in enticing the sentries away from their posts for a time and successfully carried out their sabotage." Reports have come of British saboteurs gaining entrance to factories fac-tories in the daytime, planting time bombs and leaving. A device has been perfected which can be carried car-ried concealed in the hand I have held one attached by a clever means to a tank car or a locomotive, locomo-tive, it would blow it to pieces. That is only one of hundreds of ingenious gadgets which have been perfected for this strange work of secret destruction de-struction that is going on everywhere. every-where. Even more ingenious are the methods which the underground organizations in France and Italy are using to obtain arms and supplies sup-plies for the insurrection when the moment comes. Some day, "an important statement state-ment from the White House" will come, heralding events many of which we have not even dreamed. ' While the airplane factories turn out bombers and fighters, the air-minded air-minded leaders continue to make their air plans for peace. The latest lat-est scheme which has come to my attention is an announcement from the Northeast Airlines company which says this company has made application for a helicopter service to carry air mail and air express in New England. These little planes that can rise straight up and hover, can land on a parlor rug. They would, in this proposed service, land on the roofs of post office buildings provided, I take it, that the buildings are not of the rococo vintage with peaked and pointed and turreted roofs. The service would oarry first-class as well as air mail, according to the application filed with the Civil Aeronautics board. Four hundred points would be included. The little "flying automobiles" would not only fly between towns and cities but would carry mail from urban centers to the large airports where the mail would be transferred to the air liners. A national labor service act still hovers just beyond the horizon. The chief purpose of Manpower Commissioner Commis-sioner McNutt's intricate plans, including in-cluding shifts of men from non-deferrable non-deferrable industry to war work is to build the machinery so that when the act is passed it can be put into effect at once. Now that the farm labor problem has been taken off McNutt's doorstep, door-step, and with the definite "back-to-the-farm" trend, congress may ease up on McNutt and give him the money he needs to build his pre-national pre-national service machinery. |
