Everyone Suspicious of Everyone Else; Thousands Of Troops Taken Out of Line to Meet Menace Paris, May 16.
First hand experience of the paralysing effects of the Fifth Column activities in Holland is given by a French journalist who has just returned from Amsterdam.
The number of Germans hidden all over the country was far larger than had been thought possible, he says, and they formed a most formidable combination with parachutists, Two vital bridges at Moerdyk were destroyed by German assault troops, who had been lurking in the neighbourhood several days, The same thing applied to the seaplane base near Rotterdam and other points, Before long, the Netherlands High Command, which had put every available man into the front line, had to withdraw thousands of troops to guard the roads, and key points in the rear, The atmosphere of general suspicion created by the Fifth Column Was a particularly demoralizing feature, states the correspondent, who illustrates this point by describing the feeling of civil war that prevailed when he was accompanied by a French officer, They were halted every ten yards for their papers to be examined. When he entered general headquarters, he found two revolvers levelled while papers were being scrutinized. Nobody could feel certain, he declared, even of persons bearing credentials from the Commander-in-Chief, An overzealous sentry actually struck down one of the Queen's chamberlain, he concludes—Reuter, All Germans Interned In England London, May 16.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.