1939-09-15 — Page 4

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HONGKONG HOTEL

Stubbs Rd.

GARAGE

The

Tel. 27778-9

Hongkong Telegraph.

Wyndham St., Hongkong 'Phone 26616 September 16, 1939

Censorship

RELATIONSHIP between the Gov-

ernment and the Press in times

of national emergency may be re- garded as within the ambit of or- gonisation for national defence. In war-Ume some degree of control is inevitable and necessary, and the Press is the first to admit that its Freedom, so 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 public opinion.

in

The Ministry of Information London has already created several psychologieat 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 humpered to such an extent by the restrictions imposed firstly by the

Model Ministry of Information and, second-

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COUNT THE FEGRAPH ̈S EVERYWHERE

ly, by the strict censorship of all outgoing traffic, that their reports ore probably sellom published in the big eities of the world, which give prio of place in their columns to the news agency which first provides the story. In Hongkong we have cases in point. "Reuter", apparently, were not even permitted to mention the final Ultimatum to Germany, for the only report received in Hongkong of this momentous declalon was carried. by "United Press." Again, the only News Agency report of the actual declaration of a State of War be tween Britain and Germany publish- ed on the day war started was from the American agency, the "Reuter" report being delayed en route for some hours.

If the Ministry of Information and the British and Colonial censors in- tend

to maintain the type of

muzzling which was enforced during

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 THE CZECHS ARE STANDING

UP TO

"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 hate is directed? It has no connection with the Sicilian Mafin of 50 years ago. It is a secret political organisation, founded during the Grent War to fight against the Hapsburgs for Czech independence. Its leaders wore 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 wome of the methods used by the Henlein 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 fled the country when the Nazis marched in. Its members, small in number, include industrialists and workmen, police officials and Army officers, typists and porters. In it members of different political parties sink their differences to attain the common end-national freedom.

The centres outside Czecho-Slova- kin are at

As Paris and Chiengo. 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

a 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 Nazis would at present be suicidal. 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 11 dozen patriots whom he can trust. They set to work preparing leaflets, anti-Ger- man propaganda of all kinds.

GERMANY

Recently thousands of Czech families received n 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 national our Benes. Never forget motto. Pravda Vitezi (Truth Pre- vails)." It went through the post with the help of the Mafia organisa- tion inside that civil service.

Another method used to reach the musses is chain-letters containing im- portant and truthful news of the in- ternal and the international situation. Small leaflets, printed on illegal presses, are distributed in thousands. Recently the Gestapo seized six such presses but there are plenty more to fill 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 Mafia called out its painters and the next morning the streets had their old names again.

transmitters Two pirate radio have been in operation. They broud- cast recordings of news, extructs from of Commone speeches in the House

and the French Parliament. The Ges- tapo traced one transmitter to a wood und scized it. But the Mafia men working it got away.

THE MAFIA 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- fluence 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 fea- 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 Mafia thought it could put them to better uses.

With the good will of thousands of workers, and with their active co- operation, the Mafia organises espion- age and sabotage in key industries of

vital importance to the Nazis. Indis- 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 can be caused by such methods.

It was Mafia agents who strewed sand in machinery in the Skoda arma- ment works, and who used hypodermic syringes to impregnate copper armi- tures on dynamos with acid, irretrie- vably ruining them.

been

Chemical formulae have 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 no secret which the Mafin does not know.

WHEN TENS OF THOUSANDS of Czech workmen were Bent to Germany, the Malin 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 Mafia group at Ma- hrisch-Ostrau, near the Polish frontier. have specialised in this work and fellow- scores of smuggled

their countrymen across the frontier to safety. Their intimate knowledge of the mountains and forests, the active sympathy of the local population, have enabled the Mafia to defy all attempts of the Gestapo to curtail such activi. Lies.

And, most important of all, the Mafia is succeeding in ita 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. resistance 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, Loo, the support of the Czech youth who have enjoyed 20 years of indepen- dence and know what it means. They have also

greater measure of 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.

The Navy Forbade Sunday

WHEN

the Great War they are committing WHEN King George came to n blunder of the first magnitude. In VY the throne in 1910 he did these days, it is possible for people not hold a 'review of his armed living in every corner of the world forces in the air-and for a to obtain Arst-hand Information of very simple reason. There events by radio, and the only effect were none.

the dictates of the hand that turns the dials.

AVIATION WAS

IN ENGLAND

Flying

BORN

go, but the very much more double ful one of "Will it dy?" Many in the old days simply would not leave the ground, and all had to wait for perfect weather conditions before making the attempt.

ing oflcers made a joke of the en- 1910, for flying a circular mile. Avia-

At the outset, pflois judged con- terprise. Cavalrymeti were particu- tors who had learned to fly on the larly obnoxious. They shooed the Continent were being given huge dittons by means of their cigarette smoke. If the smoke ascetided ver- of delay and undue censorship will How could anyone even coll- machine away because they feared it fees for brief demonstrations.

tically the conditions were sofc. be to turn the public from their

68. M.P.H. SPEED_RECORD

The slightest ripple of wind along. newspapers (which, in. British lands, template an air review at a time might frighten the horsest

a. population of] So for us aeronautical effort in the ure naturally pro-British) to their when, out of

Not until after the Coronation did the grass filed them with appre- Services Was concerned at that time. radio receivers, which owe loyalty to millions, only eight persone had scivity was limited to the work of Frenchman succeed in winning a henslon. Spectators had to be pa- no country and no ideals, but obey qualified as pilots-pil of them a few balloonists at Farnborough, it prize of £10,000 by making a fight tlent, and wait for hours, for even

to from London Manchester in If the wind was absent, any one of civiliana?

seems odd to think that a weapon

o hundred complications might re- FRIGHTENING HORSES. which at the beginning of the King's stages, and the effort was rightly re-

as wonderful. The world's sult in the engine not functioning In Hongkong, listeners can, and do,

speed record in the air for the year as desired. turn to Shanghai and to Manila for Coronation celebrations that an en-only a few months before July, hour, and the first flight from Lon-

It was not until shortly after the reign was militarlly non-existent is Barded

now dominant ini' warfare.

1910 was less than 68 miles per

Looking back, however, the really uncensored news and comment. They

the thusiastle Army officer gained his

is that extraordinary thing don to Paris was still unattempted. can, and do, turn to Zeesen for the

war. They flying certificate and, took his ma-1010, had the real possibilites

aviation begun to attract attention. German version of the

It was not until 1911 that the Ad- daring pilots of the thoroughly un- meeting had taken

miralty. graciously allowed four sound machines which were at first was the subject of. dignified can obtain up-to-the-minute cover-chine to the autumn sanoeuvres. He caster and Blackpool had naval officers to learn to By on ma- produced were able to avoid being

curiosity place. age from San Francisco,

bamboo and that was about all

Command-

Latham fying meetings."

had chines which a patriotic civilian had killed, Cody relied Hongkong newspapers and, through

ang poopte to won the leading prize at the latter generously presented, together with structure. Bir Alliott Verdon Roe them, the Hongkong publle are prob- receiving ends, are inviting people to place in October, 1909, for dying an aerodrome. On one thing, how used a special kind of paper. with ably typical of any part of the ever turn elsewhere for their information, distance of less than six miles in ever, the Admiralty was very firm.wilch to cover the wings of his early seos Brush Empire. Hongkong Too much censorship makes new cance

hight wind.

There must not be any flying on aeroplanes. Engines at first had a are British, first and papers unreliable, discredited and newspapers

had gained praise be- Sundays. Cody

The War Office at that chain drive. Wright machines ran foremost

worse sin of all-dull. We are the Impetuous interference with the first to adrait the necessity of censors cause, in September his "Flying time had not even formed the Air along a rail in order to take off. news is merely invlung readers to ship in war-time but we hope that Cathedral" diew for 80 yards. Mr. Battalion which preceded the estay At the Ume of the Coronation,

produced what blishment,

of the Royal and for long After, parachutes were Handley Pare' had

for all practical purposes unknown.. tum from these newspapers, which the typical example of local methods are of a known quality, to the radio. which we reproduce elsewhere in was to be, a little fater, the first Flying Corps.

The Coronation celebrations came Attempts to ensure safety were be As Mr. Greenwood stated in the this issue is not to become a per-aeroplane to fly over: London. It

Mr. Rudyard Kipling expressed House of Commons yesterday by manent phase of relationship between was called The Antiseptic because at a period in which flying was a ing made from a different angle. clamping down a shutter of silence Hongkong newspapers and the per- it was coated with a non-rusting most hazardous affair. The specu

Moore-Brabazon lation in regard to a new machine the opinion in 1910 dihat some form appointed the Ministry of Information 'and 'the sors

the Hongkong componition. Col.

PLEASE Tum To Page 7. had won a prize of £1,000 in March, i was not how fast or how far it could censors, either at the despatching or Government..

in 1912,

on a