Evening star., 1942-01-21

every country Cney nave entered.
More of this process later.
1t is sufficient for the moment to
point out that the German postoffice
last year installed what amounts to
a special department to handle the
shipment OF empty boxes sent by
relatives and friends to soldiers in
the field to be filled with food and
anything else that could be found
and returned to the folks at home.
The Berliners even developed a slang
expression for the looting which
translates loosely as purchase at
the point of pistol"
Piracy Has Aided Morale.
This piratical feature of the Nazi
campaigns actually has done much
to sustain morale at home and in
the army. But as everything else it
must some day end and that end
comes ever closer. Consumers goods
have been exhausted and cannot
be replaced because industry and
raw materials must be devoted ex-
clusively to the war needs of the
Nazls.
At the same time the downward
trend of industry and raw materials.
gradual process for the first two
years of the war, has been tremen-
dously accelerated by the expendi-
lures In the Russian battles.
The same scraping OF the bin that
has been applied to production and
UN1ds hoe o1cn haay, 1n0Sod
ropes human resources. Approx
mately 1000, 900 war prisoners, mod
ern slaves. scooped up in the Nazis'
blasting campaigns, were at work
in German factories and farms be-
fore the onslaught on Russia. There
are no dependable figures to indi-
cate how much this number may
since have been increased. An addi-
tional 1000 900 Poles have been torn
from their families and their homes
and compelled to serve their Nazi
masters in the Reich. Each new de-
feated country contributed further
thousands and hundreds of thou
sands of volunteer" workmen un-
der the pressure of the occupying
forces. Allies have been treated with
the same ruthless disregard-there
are 0,0O0 italians uprooted and
serving in the Reich.
Numbered 100000 Last Fall.
They come in all from 20 different
nations or their remnants, and their
number last fall was almost 1900
900, exclusive of war prisoners. the
Official German Labor Journal re-
ported in December. Between a
fourth and a fifth Of them are
women.
How we'll they fare may be judged
from the fact that woman laborer
working in an ornaments factory
and living in barracks under the
watchful charge of the SIS and Ges-
tapo, nets 6 marks 30 pfennings for
a minimum of 48 hours a week
$252 at the official rate. less than
81 go on the old and much more ac-
curate basis.
Without regard for the economies
they may disrupt the Nazis like
wise have compelled their con-
quered and allied neighbors to in
crease the work week for laborers
living at home and working in war
industries serving the Germans, the
only ones permitted to operate. Late
in November, for example, Bulgaria
jumped the hours from 48 to go.
The Danes have had slightly
different dose. Considered more
trustworthy than their Norwegian
neighbors, they were recruited by
the thousands to construct the
Falkenhorst line of coastal fortifi.
cations in Norway. Seventy two
hours q week Is no rarity for them
They find themselves bound by con-
tract, the breaking of which involves
not only civil penalties, but long
term Jail sentences. A not inconsid'
cradle number have lost their lives
attempting to escape to Sweden.
Humans Are Running Down.
As everything else in Europe, hu-
mans are running down. But the
pressure for workers and ever more
workers continues, and will continue
so long as the Nazis have the power
Meanwhile every conceivable meas
ure will be brought to bear tt
squeeze out additional production
Unit figures are a source of desper.
ate concern to the masters Of thu
continent.
Discovery that Europe's resources
have definite limits has come as 1
bitter disappointment to the in
dividual German, who Is still in bet
ter circumstances than his con
quered or overrun neighbors, for tn,
Nazis have said candidly and fire.
quently that Germany will be th'
last European country to 60 hungr!
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