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HONGKONG HOTEL
Stubbs Rd.
GARAGE
The
Tel. 27778-9
Hongkong Telegraph. Wyndham St., Hongkong
'Phone 26615 September 15, 1939
Censorship
DELATIONSHIP between the Gov-
RELATIONS Fren, in fines
of national emergency may be re- garded as within the bit of or ganisation for national
In defence, war-time some degree of control is inevitable and necessary,
and the Tress is the first to admit that its Freedom, 50 jealously guarded in times of peace, must be subordinated to national interests in times of war. It is all-important, however, that the control should disable as little as possible the proper function of the Press, which is to inform and con- solidate publie opinion.
The Ministry of Information in London has already created several psychological blunders which have done much to undermine confidence In the Press-notable being the delay and confusion in the release of in- formation regarding the sinking of the Athenia, the silence regarding the Royal Air Force exploit at Kiel and the muddle over news of the transfer of the British Expeditionary Force to France.
British news agencies have been hampered 10. such un, extent by the restrictions imposed firstly by the
The New "REGENT" Model Munistry of Information and, second-
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COUNT THE TELEGRAPHS EVERYWHERE
ly, by the strict censorship of all outgoing traffic, that their reports are probably seldom published in the big ettles of the world, which give price of place in their columns to the new. agency which first provides the story. In Hongkong we have cases in paint, "Reuter", apparently, were not even permitted to mention the final Ultimatum to Germany, for the only report received in Hongkong of this momentous decision was carried by "United Press." Again, the only News Agency report of the actual declaration of a Sinte of War be-. tween Britain and Germany publish- ed on the day war started was from the American agency. the "Reuter" repart being delayed en route for some hours.
September 15, 1939.
Beneath the heel of their new conqueror the Czech people are not squirming. Day and night the Czech Mafia organises resistance to the Germans, sabotages their factories, holds up their plans. What is this secret society of patriots? Here a member of the Mafia-who must obviously remain anonymous-tells you something of the way in which
ARE STANDING GERMANY
THE
CZECHS UP ΤΟ
"THE MAFIA MUST BE EXTIRPATED," DECLARED Herr Himmler, head of the German Police and Gestapo, after his recent visit to Czecho-Slovakia.
What is this Mafia against which Himmler's bate is directed? It has no connection with the Sicilian Mafia of 50 years ago.
It is a secret political organisation, founded during the Great War to fight against the Hapsburgs for Czech independence. Its leaders were. Thomas G. Masaryk and Eduard Benes. Its objective attained, the Mafia dis- solved.
To-day, with Czecho-Slovakia once more under a foreign tyranny, it has been resurrected, led in part by the same men who founded it. To the ex-. perience gained during the old "fight in the dark" against the Hapsburgs, the Mafia has added some of the methods used by the Hentein Nazis in Sudetenland before Munich,
THE CZECH MAFIA HAS TWO sections, the organisation abroad and the internal secret society. Both are led by Dr. Benes and the friends who
the fled the country when
Nazis marched in. Its members, small in number, include industrialists und workmen, police officials and Army officers, typists and porters. In it ambers of different politient parties sink their differences to attain the common end-national freedom.
The centres outside Czecho-Stova- kia are at Paris and Chicago. As during the world war, it is the Ameri can Czechs who find most of the money. but now, inside the country itself. a secret fund is being organised.
#
Between Paris and Prague there is regular "underground" system of couriers. Money, material for propa- ganda, and orders are sent in; news, information about internal conditions, are sent out.
THE AIM OF THE MAFIA IS TO free the Czech people. But it knows that to foment a revolution against the suicidal, Nazis would at present be History has taught, however, that con- ditions may change in a night.
So the Mafia keeps alight the flame of freedom, prepares the people for the day when the blow must be struck.
Most important of the work inside the country is to counter German pro- paganda. During the last few months the Mafia has honeycombed the coun- try with its cells.
A member finds half # dozen patriots whom he can trust. They set to work preparing leaflets, anti-Ger- man propaganda of all kinds.
Recently thousands of Czech families received ♫ communication hended: "Ten Laws for Loyal Czechs." It was flaming summons to have faith in a higher justice and the ultimate triumph of right, and ended: "Trust Benes. Never forget Our national
Vitezi
Pre- (Truth motto. Pravda vails)." It went through the post with the help of the Mafia organisa- tion inside that civil service.
Another method used to reach the masses is chain-letters containing im- portant and truthful news of the in- ternal and the international situation. Small leaflets. printed un illegal presses, are distributed in thousands. Recently the Gestapo seized six such presses but there are plenty more to All the gap. Czech master printers do not care to know why their workmen spend so much time at the works dur- ing the evenings,
When the Nazis changed the street names from Masaryk, Revolu- tion and Freedom Streets to Hitler or Horst Wessel, the Mafin called out its painters and the next morning the streets had their old names again.
Two
transmitters pirate radio have been in operation. They broad- cast recordings of news, extracts from speeches in the House of Commons and the French Parliament. The Ges- tapo traced one transmitter to a wood and seized it. But the Mafia working it got away.
men
THE MAPIA WORKS NOT only against the Nazis but against the Czech Fascists. A few so-called "Nationalists" helped the Germans, The Mafia knows them. has marked them down and destroyed what in- Huence they had:
The Mafia, too, knows the agents- provocateurs, shadows them, exposes them, and frequently organises their "disappearance." The attempts of the Czech Fascists to stir up race-hatred and anti-Semitism are exposed. Anti- Semitism is merely a mask used by the Nazis, says the Mafia; and distributes thousands of leaflets to hammer home the point.
One of the most remarkable fen- tures of the Mafia is its organisation for collecting information. It has its agents in official departments, and often has information of Government "secrets" as soon as the Government itself. It taps telephone lines, and, in- cidentally, when doing this work, it found a number of secret lines laid by the Sudeten Nazis. Needless to say, such lines were destroyed, except when the Mafix thought it could put them to better user.
With the good will of thousands of workers, and with their active co- operation, the Mafia organises espion- age and sabotage in koy industries of
Indis-
vital importance to the Nazis. pensable blue-prints which cannot be reproduced disappear; measuring in- struments get out of gauge, and in`an armament factory where a thousandth of an inch is of vital importance, in- describable havoc such methods,
can be caused by
It was Mafia agents who strewed sund in machinery in the Skoda arma- ment works, and who used hypodermic syringes to impregnate copper arma- tures on dynamos with neid, irretrie- vably ruining them.
Chemical formulae have been stolen and sent abroad, and a check is kept on the production of armaments and information of new types and de- velopments is sent to Paris. There is secret which the Mala does not know,
of
WHEN TENS OF THOUSANDS Czech workinen were sent to Germany, the Mafia agents went with them, formed cells, got into touch with "underground" elements in Germany, and spread the net of factory sabotage over the Reich itself. They organised espionage, working hand in hand with the German Freedom Front, stirring the German masses to join with them in resistance to the Nazis.
Another activity of the Mafia is in organising the escape of political suspects. The Mafin group at Ma- hrisch-Ostrau, near the Polish frontier, have specialised in this work and smuggled scores of their fellow- countrymen across the frontier to safety. Their intimate knowledge of the mountains and forests, the active ympathy of the local population, have enabled the Mafia to defy all' attempts of the Gestapo to curtail auch activi- ties.
And, most important of all, the Mafia is succeedling in its main objects of maintaining the morale of the Czech people and of keeping their spirit un- broken.
DISCONTENT AMONG THE Czechs is increasing, and with it Tesistance to the conquerors. The underground fight grows keener every day, and resistance, while unostentati- ous, is resolute, active and efficient.
The Mafia members have 25 years' experience behind them; they have, too, the support of the Czech youth who have enjoyed 20 years of indepen- dence and know what it means. They have also ! greater
of measure sympathy from the world outside than they had 25 years ago when the Czech people were scarcely known.
That people will not cease in its struggle for freedom, and in that strug- gle the Mafia will play, as it played before, the dominating role.
Sunday
The Navy Forbade WHEN AVIATION WAS
IN ENGLAND
THEN King George came to
W the throne in 1910 he did
If the Ministry of Information and the British and Colonia! censors in- tend to maintain the type of muzzling which was enforced during the Great War they are committing a blunder of the first magnitude. In these days, it is possible for people not hold a review of his armed living in every corner of the world forces in the nir-and for a to obtain first-hand Information of very simple events by radio, and the only. eftert were none.
Flying
BORN
go, but the very much more doubt- ful one of "Will it fly?" Many In the old days simply would not leave the ground, and all had to walt for perfect weather conditions before
There ing officers made a joke of the en-1910, for flying a circular mile. Avia- terprise. Cavalrymen were particu-tors who had learned to fly on the lorly obnoxious. They shooed the Continent were being given huge of delay and undue censorship will
How could anyone even con-machine away because they feared it fees for brief demonstrations. be to turn the public from their newspapers (which, in British lands, template an air review at a time might frighten the horses!
to their when, cut of
So far as aeronautical effort in the a population of are naturally pro-British)
Services was concerned at that time, radio receivers, which owe loyalty to millions, only eight persons hail no country no ideals, obey the dictates of the land but try qualified as pilots-all of them
civilians?
making the attempt. renson,
the dials.
21
At the outset, pilots Judged con- ditions by means of their claerette smoke. If the smoke ascended ver- Heally the conditions were safe.
68 M.P.H. SPEED RECORD The slightest ripple of wind along.
from
Lo
Rheims meeting had taken graciously The
Manchester
them appre- Not until after the Coronation did the grass filled
flight tlent, and walt for hours, for, even activity was limited to the work. of a Frenchman succeed in winning ahension. Spectators had to be a
few balloonists at Farnborough. It prize of £10,000 by making seems odd to think
London
in if the wind was absent, any one of that a weapon! FRIGHTENING HORSES which at the beginning of the King's stages, and the effort was rightly re-n hundred complications might re- as wonderful. The world's suit in the engine. not functioning In Hongkong, listeners can, and do,
reign w
was militarlly non-existent is garded
us desired. speed record in the air for the year turn to Shanghai and to Manila for Coronation celebrations that an en- It was not until shortly after the
dominant in warfare. now
1010 was leas than 68 miles per Only a few months before July, hour, and the first flight from Lon-
Looking back, however, the really uncensored news and comment. They can, and do, turn to Zeesen for the thusiastle Army offleer gained his 1910, had the real possibilites of don to Paris was Bull unattempted. extraordinary thing is that the German version of the war. They flying certificate and took his ma
attention. Ditract
It was not until 1813 that the Ad- during pilots of the thoroughly un-
allowed four sound machines which were at first. can obtain up-to-the-minute cover-chine to the autumn manoeuvres. He aviation begun to
was the subject of dignified curiosity. place. Doncaster, and Blackpool had miralty Brac tourn to us on ma- produced were able to avoid being age from San Francisco.
and that was about alt, Command-held flying meetings. Latham had chimes which a patriotic civilian had kuled. Cody relied on bamboo Hongkong newspapers and, through them, the Hongkong publle are prob-receiving ends, are inviting people to place in October, 1009, for flying aan Berodromne. On one thing, how-used a special kind of beer curly won the leading prize at the latter generously. presented, together with structure.. Sir Alllott Verdon Roe sbly typical of any part of the over-turn elsewhere for their information, distance of less than six miles in a ever, the Admiralty was very arms which to cover the wings of his early
British Empire. Hongkong Too much censorship makes ne high wind.
There must not be any flying on aeroplanes, Engines at first had a newspapers are British, first and papers unreliable, discredited and
worse sin of all-dull. We are the S. F. Cody had gained praise he- Sundays. The War Office at that chain drive. Wright machines ron foremost.
in September, his "Flying!
At the time of the Coronation, Impetuous interference with the first to admit the necessity of censor-
Battalion which preceded the esta nows is merely inviting readers to ship in war-time but we hope dint Cathedral" dew, for 80 yards. time had not even formed the Air along a rall in order to take off.
for all practical purposes unknown. turn from these newspapers, which the typical example of local Handley
later, the first Flying Corps. are of a known quality, to the radio. which we reproduce, disew methods and toyage had produced what blishment, in 1912, of the Royal and for long after, parachutes were
I aeroplane to fly over London. The Coronation, celebrations, cama Attempts to ensure taly were beg As Mr. Greenwood stated in the this issue is not to become a pet was called "The Antiseptle" because at a period in which, flying was a ing made from a different angle."
Mr. Rudyard Kipling expressed House of Commons yesterday, by manent phase of relationship between
was coated with a non-rusting most hazardous affair. The specu- clamping down a shutter of allence, Hongkong newspapers and the cen-11
the Hongkong composition. Col.. Moore-Brabazon lation in regard to a new machine the opinion in 1910 that some "fortia the Ministry of Information and the sors appointed
PLEASE Tan To Fago T.. had won a prize of £1,000 in March, was not how fast or how far it could censors, either at the despatching or Government.