SOVIET LEVY

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 66, Issue 250, 3 August 1946, Page 5

SOVIET LEVY

Nazi Satellite Countries NEW YORK, August 2. By the end of the year the Soviet will have removed 2,200,000,000 dollars’ worth of property from Finland, Rumania, Bulgaria and Hungary, according to estimates in Washington from private and official sources, reports the Washington correspondent of the “New York Times.” With the addition of 750,000,000 dollars in reparations, the total Russian acquisitions on account of war booty, restitution of occupation costs, removal of German assets and bilateral trade agreement are thus brought to a total of approximately 3,000,000,000 dollars. The figures are regarded as conservative and do not include the value of Russian gains from Eastern Germany and from Manchuria, nor the value of the forced labour. Russia employed under the category of “reparations in kind.” The figures are regarded in Washington with considerable significance in relation to the necessity for additional foreign credits the Russians claim they need from the United States and elsewhere. Experts point rout that the bulk of non-reparations property removed from the four countries has left them greatly weakened from the productive viewpoint.