BLOODLESS COUP

Evening Star, Issue 24012, 10 October 1941, Page 5

BLOODLESS COUP

NEW REGIME IN PANAMA PRO-GERMAN PRESIDENT FLEES COUNTRY ALL SUPPORTERS ARRESTED i Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright PANAMA CITY, (Rec. 12.10 p.m.) Oct. 9. A coup d’etat occurred m Panama to-day, the President, Dr Arnulfo Arias, having fled to Cuba. Reporting this, the United Press of America says the coup is believed to have been backed by democratic elements, who overturned the Government. The new regime took over authority this morning. The leader is Adolfo de la Guardia, the Government Secretary. No bloodshed is reported, but a strong police guard has been placed about the new Government’s headquarters. Arias’s police, all members of his staff, and employees of' the Government newspaper ‘La Trihuna ’ have been arrested, and other” Arias supporters are reported in custody. Arias left by plane under an assumed name on Tuesday, Whether ha was pre-warned or whether _ the coup leaders took advantage of his absence is not clear at present. The first intimation of anything unusual came last night when the American military and naval authorities suddenly ordered all army and navypersonnel to leave Panama and return to the Canal Zone. Panama has been declared out of hounds for all American military forces. Arias was responsible for the ruling forbidding Panama-registered ships tc carry arms. He was regarded ai strongly pro-German.

OCCUPIED COUNTRIES

HO LET-UP IN RESISTANCE MORE WHOLESALE EXECUTIONS LONDON. October 8. Reports received in London show. thas there has been no abatement of resistance in occupied countries against tho German oppressors. The Tass Agency reports that fierce fighting continues between German, troops and Serb guerrillas south-east-ward of Belgrade in the area formed by the towns of Obrenovac, Sabatch, and Vajjevo. When General Neditch. sent troops to deal with Serbs who had occupied Urice the troops refused to fight their own people. The correspondent of a Budapest newspaper reports from Belgrade that a German and Serbian expedition, after gome weeks of fighting, quelled bands of guerrillas who had .been pillaging villages. The Germans fought from village to village, using flame-throwers. They sometimes executed groups of between 50 and 60 people. , ! ' The German News Agency announced that 14 Czechs had been hanged in Prague and Brno for economic sabotage. The°tenth case of arson in a week was reported from the Melun area in France, when chemical workshops were set on fire. causing damage estimated ati 6,000.000 francs. Sentences continue to be meted out wholesale by special courts in France. Seventv-three Belgians who were released after two months’ imprisonment} were arrested for a patriotic demon* stration on Belgium’s national day.They have again been imprisoned. The ‘ Social Demokraten ’ reports that! 32 more Norwegian trade union leaders have been sent to concentration camps.It is officially announced in Bucharest! that 1.735 Rumanian legionaries who were imprisoned for participating iw Iron Guard disturbances last January have been granted an amnesty.

SUMMARY EXECUTIONS

NAZI REIGN OF TERROR VICTIMS UNDAUNTED (Reo. 11.35 a.m.) LONDON, Oct. 9. Reports received from inside Europ® reveal that executions, prison sentences, and humiliations, far from subduing the victims of Axis aggression, are merely adding fuel to their hatred. Travellers reaching Istanbul report increasing activities of well-organised bands of Albanian irregulars, seeking to overthrow the Shefket Veilacis puppet Government. One band recently raided a village between Tirana and Ruazzo and blew up the telephone installations after a fight with Italian, guards, 13 of whom were-killed. The German News Agency reports that 32 were shot in Yugoslavia because they belonged to Communist bands. It is reported from Helsinki that a further 32 Communists were executed in Prague. Twenty Polish men and women were arrested in Danzig and charged with activities against the Government. After some days at sea in an open motor boat, several young Norwegians, escaping from Nazi tyranny, arrived in Britain. The engine broke down and they drifted helplessly, when a British plane spotted tliem and they were picked up by naval craft.

SOUTHERN RhDDESIA

NEW GOVERNOR APPOINTED (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, October 8. The King has approved of the ap* pointment of Lord Huntingfield to b» Governor of Southern Rhodesia in succession to Sir Herbert Stanley, whose term of office will expire on January 7, 1942. Lord Huntingfield was Governor for the State of Victoria during 1934-39.-

CHAD TERRITORY

ITALIANS BOMB FREE FRENCH POSTS, LONDON, October 8. ’ Free French Headquarters in London state that during the first few days of this month Italian aircraft raided scv. >1 of our posts in the region north of Chad, but the casualties aud damage were insignificant.