From Terror to Massacre
The fear which the Germans have of the rising spirit of the oppressed populations may be judged by the brutality of their repressive measures. Undoubtedly organised sabotage has been doing a great deal of damage to German war- production, and in Yugoslavia armed bands have made success- ful attacks on German troops. The policy the Germans are employing is to try to stamp out this passive and active resis- tance by terror on the largest possible scale, punishing innocent persons with systematic barbarity. No civilised rules are com- patible with the execution of hostages, resorted to on a large scale in France and Belgium. Poland since early in the war has been treated with unspeakable cruelty, and similar methods are now being applied in Czechoslovakia, where the notorious Heydrich, right-hand man of Himmler, has taken the place of Neurath, and has signalised his arrival by arresting people of high rank as well as low, and shooting many of them, the climax coming on Wednesday with the passing of a death- sentence on the puppet-Premier General Eliash. But the worst fate of all is that which is being dealt out with unexampled ferocity to the people of Yugoslavia. Too little has been made known to the outside world of the appalling massacres of whole towns and villages in Croatia, Serbia Montenegro, and the indiscriminate murder of men, w and children. Dive-bombers have destroyed whole towns villages systematically, including the town of Uzice. Serbians. Croatia who have escaped slaughter have fled to the moun or endeavoured to escape to old Servia. When the stories these barbarities come to be told in full they will be found equal or surpass the worst that fouled the name'of the infam Sultan Abdul Hamid
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