Rustles of Spring

As the buds swelled to bursting on Hitler's vine of war, the saboteurs against the New Order were still nipping at the roots underground. Last week, from governments-in-exile and other anti-Axis sources, there were many reports of their slow, courageous work:

Belgian rebels were credited with causing 125 railway accidents during the past month.

Hungary was incensed by Nazi demands for one-third of Hungary's soil and increased food production for the German Army. Hungary's six largest plants, including its only rubber and biggest chemical factory, had been damaged.

Italy resented rumors that Germany would appease Hungary by giving it a corridor to the Adriatic at Trieste. The Rome radio reported that in the Balkans 353 Italians were killed, 358 wounded in March.

Rumania was flooded with an issue of 20-lei banknotes on which had been rubber-stamped the slogans "Peace with the Soviet! . . . Down with Antonescu and Hitler! . . . We want Transylvania! [TIME, March 30] . . . Out with the Germans!" Rumanian society from top to bottom was angered by puppet Premier General Ion Antonescu's granting of heavy German demands for food and troops.

Yugoslavia. The Nazis threatened last week that if brave General Mihailovich and his 150,000 guerrillas did not surrender within five days, 16,000 Jugoslav hostages, including many relatives of the guerrillas, would be executed. A response-came at once from the 20,000-square-mile "Island of Freedom," where General Mihailovich has for months fought off and made raids against as many as seven different Nazi divisions (TIME, March 9). The response: a "spring offensive" against the one remaining Nazi division and the Bulgarian troops which have replaced the others.

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