"RHINE BARRAGE"

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 84, 10 April 1945, Page 3

"RHINE BARRAGE"

PLAN FOR REFUGEES MILLIONS TO SORT OUT LONDON. The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Association and the Civil Affairs Division at Supreme Headquarters will estblish a "Rhine barrage" of refugee control camps immediately the war is ended. The millions of displaced persons now serving as slave labourers in Germany will be chanelled through these military wefare stations as they start for their homes in Western Europe. "The Rhine barrage is the result of long-term planning with the military and the representatives of all the anti-Fascist countries belonging to U.N.R.R.A., said Fred Hoehler, director of the displaced persons division. "The Rhine is a natural barrier and it is at the approaches to the Rhine bridges and crossings that we hope to begin the great task of returning refugees to their own countries." The minimum time estimated for this job is six months to a year, it may take longer, said one observer here. According to the agreement recently signed by General Dwight D. Eisenhower and U.N.R.RA. Director General Herbert H. Lehman, it will be the joint responsibility of the Army and U.N.R.R.A. to see that the millions of displaced persons who start for their homes at the time of the armistice, are fed, clothed, given medical attention and provided with identity papers and transported over approved routes. The newly signed working agreement is based on knowledge gathered by U.N.R.R.A. personnel working in London and actual experience of the military in France, where large numbers of displaced persons were left behind by the Germans.