REFUGEES FROM POLAND

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 120, 6 March 1950, Page 3

REFUGEES FROM POLAND

, movement toward west GERMANY BONN, March 4. The British United Press says that the Allied High Commission for Germany to-day ordered the West German Chancellor (Dr. Konrad Adenauer) to close the Russiah-zone border to an expected 250,000 refugees. The refugees are being expelled by the Russians from former German territoiy now occupied by. the Poles. Seven hundred of them crossed into the British zone yesterday. Western officials in Bonn said to-day that there were two main reasons for the High Commission’s order —there was no provision for adequate security checkss on the refugees, and they would add to the already alarming total of 2,000,000 unemployed in Western Germany. The - High Commission, in its letter to Dr. Adenauer, said that it believed the Poles intended to send the whole German population remaining east of the Oder-Neisse line to Western Germany. Last November the High Commissioner agreed to accept 25,000 Germans who have relatives in the west able to receive and support them. Reuter says that the High Commissioner's letter conflicted with an announcement made‘to-day by Mr Heinrich Albertz, Minister of Refugees for Lower Saxony, that he was prepared to allow all German refugees from Poland to come into West Germany.