The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-08-23

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 reaching here said recent Paris demonstrators were French Nation alists. In any event, recent acts of sabotage were believed to have causd the Germans concern over West while they are heavily engaged in Russia.
 News of the assassination of a German naval ensign in 8 subway station in Paris last Sunday reached here today. He was shot twice while standing in 8 crowd and 1t was said that the asSailant or assailants es- capped. The current roundup of Paris "Jews", estimated at 5000, and executions, of which three have been announced the past two days, were said to have been in reprisal for tn assassination.
 The cabinet met in Vichy this morning, with Petain presiding, to hear latest developments in the campaign to suppress anti-German agitation.
 Today's oficial journal published Petair's new decree, setting up spe- cial military courts of army and navy officials to sit alongside the regular criminal and military courts and try all Communist, Anarchist and sabotage cases. Their sentences must be imposed within 10 days of the arrests, and if the death sem tence is provided, 1t must be car- ried out immediately without ap- peal.
 Now Hiti at Nazis
 Communists, whose activities prior to June 9 were directed mainly against Petain's regime, have now concentrated on haraSsing the Ger man occupation forces. Most of the industrial and transport sabotage has been blamed to them. Com municationS Minister Jean Berthe- lots radio appeal to railway workers for loyalty this week was said to have been necessitated by the fact that before the war more than 60 per cent of railway workers were Commmunists. There have been a series of train wrecks recently. When France cracked down on communists at the outbreak of the war, many of them lied to Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg and Switzer- land. They reorganized into cells behind the German lines to wage their campaigns against the Vichy regime by correspondence. With the outbreak of the Russo German war June 9, many went to unoccupied France. A sharp lookout has been kept for some of the more prom inent ones, including Maurice Thorez, former general secretary of the French Communist party, who faces a charge of desertion from the French army in wartime, and Jac- ques DucloS, who was vice president of the chamber of deputies when the party was dissolved.
 It is estimated that German troops and French police have put 10000 Communists into jails, concentra- tion camps or in fixed residences since the end of the war. Some are militant Communists, others only party hangers-on.
 It was pointed out that the Ger man order was signed not by Gen. Otto von Stulpnagel, who Com- mands the occupation force in France, but by von Schaumburg who commands German police in Paris and the surrounding area, and who is charged with Tepressing Communists and other anti-Ger- man elements there.
 The threat to shoot hostages was regarded as a considerable one, since it left the choice of those to be shot and their number entirely to the judgment of German author itios. Some observers believed the 1000 Jews and Communists" rounded up in Paris this week might be classified as "shootable hostages" although the order ] seemed to indicate that only those arrested from today on were af- fected. This weeks prisoners in- cluded 5000 "Jews" taken in the 11th arrondisement (ward), and l. 900 Jews and Communists ar- rested the following day in the 2Oth arrondisement where, in the Pere Ia Chaise cemetery and Gambetta dis tricts, many Communists once re- sided.
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