If nothing else that has occurred in other countries which have been overrun by the Nazis could have been cited as proof of the German plan to make citizens of so-called inferior races slaves of the Herrenvolk, what has just happened in Croatia would be quite enough. Though the Croats contributed by their defection to the swift defeat of Yugoslavia and might, therefore, have been considered entitled to a certain amount of gratitude from the Axis, the first important news which comes out of the part of Croatia which is under German control is that fifty thousand Croats are to be transported to Germany for work there. Apparently they are to be given no choice in the matter, and whatever industries they formerly supplied in Croatia will have to get along as best they can without them. Or, is more likely, the Nazis plan to allow the Croatian industries to die out in accordance with their scheme to make greater Germany the centre of all important industrial production in Europe, and the surrounding countries mere suppliers of labour and agricultural necessaries for the Reich. Thus the punishment of trust in the Nazis has already fallen upon the Croats; the slave system has been applied with even less disguise and less preliminary sapping of resources that the world has become accustomed to see when this condition has arisen in other countries. It iS improbable that the Nazis will stop with the Croats. There are other overrun nations in the Balkans which can.convenient! upply labour for them. There is Bulgaria, for example. There is a possibility tha tion to enslave Bulgarian workers will not be immediate, since it is reported that the Nazis are anxious to withdraw many of the occupational troops from Greece and Yugoslavia for use elsewhere, and that pressure has been brought on the Bulgarian Gov ment to provide soldiers to take their place. tle doubt, however, that even if are persuaded to take over the unenviable of holding down the populations of two hostile countries, with whom they had no quarrel except that which was invented for them by Berlin, the Nazis will continue the economic exploitation they have already begun. The Bulgarians will have to do the dirty work, and will get nothing out of it except the crumbs which Hitler allows to fall from his table. The arrogance of this kind of thing is amazing, but it is even less amazing than the frame of mind which must posses the Nazis and which allows them to believe that they can treat their Axis subordinates and the peoples they have conquered in such a fashion without stirring up an immeasurable hatred. Axis propagandists have been busy painting their "new order" in glo g colours. Some people may have been d ed by the picture. If so, they will be very quickly disillusioned when they experience the "new order practice and realize that it means for them a role of per. manent peonage. There is something to be said for the idea of Europe working together under one system for the mutual prosperity of all But there is absolutely nothing to be said for the idea of Europe working together under one stem for the prosperity of only, one—a race." which looks on history with the ce s of distortion, and which dreams of a one-nation millennium which would be a nightmare to the rest of the world.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.