Evening star., 1942-10-04
Axis-Ru|ed Europe
Tiqhtens Belt for
Cold, Hungry Winter:
All but Reich to Feel
Pinch, With Food Token
To Feed Conquerors
BY BLAIR BOLLES,

Nazi propagandists are boasting
that. the Germans will eat, better
this winter than they did last.
From Lapland to Greece, the occu-
pied regions have been organized
to provide foDdstuffs for the masters
during the cold season. -
Letters smuggled out of Europe
report that the question whether
the children can be kept alive until
spring Is the principal worry of the
men and women in the occupied
countries.
An American woman in Paris has
written description of her agonies
in watching her 8-year -old daugh-
ter fade before her eyes because of
the starvation diet.
New babies In Europe are smaller
and smaller, according to intell-
gence reports reaching here. because
of the slim meals consumed by the
mothers.
Reindeer Herds Raided.
IN Northern Finland and Norway,
according to reports from Norway,
Axis agents have been raiding the
reindeer herds to supply meat for
Axis stomachs. Lapp Aslak. Juso,
known. as King of the Lapps," is
said to have made an ineffective
protest against the depletion of his
deer, having 1000 taken from his
herd of 2,700.
The Germans are said to be con-
hdent that plans made during the
summer to channel foodstuffs to
Germany from Southern Europe will
make it possible for them to combat
the rigors of winter.
Unofficial reports credit the Ital-
tans with robbing Albania of food
stun. to such a degree that the AL
banians are famine bound.
The theoretically independent al
lies of Germany-Hungary, Ru-
mania and Bulgaria-are feeling the
screws of the Nazi food demands
almost as severely as are the occu-
pied and puppet countries-Slo-
vakia, Bohemia Moravia, Yugo-
slavia and Greece. Those countries
make up Southeastern Europes
great farm belt. No sound estimate
is available here about the amount
Of foodstuffs the Nazis are obtain
ing from the occupied regions of
Russia.
Nazis Spur Farm Output.
Official British reports say Ger
many has been using a considerable
part of its industrial capacity to
make farm machinery for shipment
to Southeastern Europe in order to
increase the food output. Some
German rolling stock has been di-
verted to the line connecting Bull
garia with Germany in order to
assure the transfer of Bulgarian
farm stuffs to the Reich.
Efforts are made in Berlin to OBJ
tain these foodstuffs without even
the pretense of present payment.
A friend of the Germans in Buda-
pest. Andras Mecser, chairman of
the German-Hungarian Chamber of
Commerce, made speech recently
why the Nazis should
receive the Hungarian produce as a
long term loan. The German news
paper in Belgrade, Donauzeitung,
quoted him thus:
1T goes without saying that Ger
many, in bearing the greatest share
Of the struggle, no longer produces
pdacetine articles in the same GUAM
tity as hitherto, and that Germany
in return for her war effort and
sacrifice of blood has the right to
demand the greatest possible efforts
from all her allies, which will be
repaid as quickly as possible after
the war.
Crops Carefully Checked.
1T would be a sin against the
new Europe, against Hungary's in
tefests and not least against those
heroes who have died, to question
this"
To make sure the food grown in
the Danubian Basin reaches Ger
many in good condition, the Nazis
have established an extensive sys-
tenn of drying and freezing depots
IN Southeastern Europe. And to
make sure that the food grown in
the fields reaches those depots for
pre-shipment processing the Nazis
have instituted a careful system of
on farm production.
In Yugoslavia, for instance, farm
ers were required to register with
the cereal center the size of the
harvests of cereals, oil plants and
legumes and to register the num-
Der OF persons in their families. BY
this method Berlin hoped to fore
stall any subterfuge on the part of
peasants reluctant to turn their
produce over to the Nazis.
Grain Harvest Recorded.
"A regulation in Slovakia pre-
scTibed that threshing could be done
only with machines, which provide
a Tecord amount of grain. Accord
ing to the newspaper Slovak in
Bfatlslava, under German super
vision, the owners of threshing ma
chimes have been required to make
this oath in the Office of the district
representatives of the agriculture
bureau;
II swear by God the Almighty and
Omniscient that I will follow all the
regulations, keep all the
necessary forms and fill them in
fully and truthfully. report all the
grain threshed ON the forms, that
will see that all the regulations
appertaining to the handling and
treatment of the crops are obeyed
and that I will report Immediately
all defects and inaccuracies to the
police
Greeks are forbidden to sell the
following products without the per-
NIT of the Ministry of Food in
Athens and of the occupation au-
thorities-currants, raisins. sultanas,
olives, meat, cereals, flour and dry
vegetables, macaroni, sugar and rice.
Hit-and-Run Victim Dies
In Alexandra HospjtaI /