The Waterbury Democrat., 1940-08-20

part. While the discontent of the masses was whipped up to enthu- siasm in favor of Nazi Germany, agents like Franz Won Papen skill fully convinced leading Austrians that only through Hitler could their secret aspirations be fulfilled.
 The Slovaks, who had suffered their bondage under Hungary, could be duped. But Czechs and Poles could not. Both peoples had lived far too long cheek to jowl with Prussians to have the slightest doubt as to Hitler's real intentions. There was no strong fifth column among the Czechs and Poles; a few Czech Agrarians, the former Polish Foreign Minister Josef Beck. The Czechs were finally conquered by French betrayal and British selfish ness, the Poles by the armed might of 8 nation three or four times as strong.
 To see the fifth column" in full swing one had to wait for the at tack on democratic countries.
 Norway Sold Out
 In Norway there is little doubt but that Fifth Column" activities contributed to the success of the German Blitz attack and were re- sponsible for the quick collapse of all organized resistance. Major and former national defense minister Quisling had been, If not actually in the pay of German Nazis, at least in close contact with them for years. His success in stabbing Nor way in the back can be traced (A) to the fear of Socialism carefully fostered among leading Norwegians by NaI propaganda and (B) to the fact that numerous appointments to high army commands had been made by Quisling's intimate friend. There is some reason to believe that the electrically controlled mines guarding the inner harbor of Oslo were put out of action by another highly placed Norwegian traitor. In view of the efficiency of relatively weak coastal defenses, it is safe to say that without fifth column" &C., tivity in Norway, the Norwegian re- sistance would have lasted several days and the invasion conceivably failed altogether.
 Open in Holland.
 In Holland the fifth column was more numerous than effective. This was doubtless due to its open char actcr. The five odd per cent of all Dutchmen organized in Mussert's Dutch National Socialist party for years provided the Nazis with mili- tary and economic information. But the Dutch government had little enough to conceal. The Dutch Na- tional Socialists did what they could do to welcome, assist and succor the invading German parachutists and air-borne infantry, and somewhat half -heartedly took part in the Ger man attacks upon the Dutch police and army. But of themselves they were relatively ineffective.
 Betrayed Defenses.
 Tn Belgium, without the shadow of a doubt, F1emings loyal to Hitler betrayed the main defenses of the Albert canal and opened not only their country, but Holland as well, to German invasion. An eye wit ness, the wife of a patriotic Belgium customs authority stationed on the Dutch frontier nearby, reported how Flemish soldiers deliberately neg lected to blow the bridges over the canal which had been constructed primarily as a barrier to invasion. Others took to their heels at the sight of the first German. In all the towns, German Flemings and Rexists of Degrelle spread stories of the uselessness of the war, the strength of Germany and the futility of resistance. Others threw the villages into panic, creating hordes of refugees whose presence on the roads southward slowed and even prevented the advance of the French and British armies that were to Belgium's assistance.