LAND REFORM IN POLAND

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24632, 31 July 1945, Page 5

LAND REFORM IN POLAND

11,000,000 ACRES REDISTRIBUTED ’ BIG EStATES SHARED LONDON, July 29. “Eleven million acres of land in Poland—one-fifth of the total bnd area—has been distributed to ■ new owners since last September under the Government’s land reform policy,” says the Warsaw correspondent of the Associated Press. “A total of 328,000 families have so far received land. It is estimated that 2,000,000 individuals, representing nearly 10 per cent, of the population, have benefited. Another .2,000,000 will be transferred to new areas taken from Germany. “Poland is thus becoming a land of peasant proprietors without a landlord class. The Government, which has taken over big estates without paying compensation, aims at ensuring that every peasant family has at least 12 acres of land. Co-operatives have been given the task of administering undistributable property, including barns, machinery, and flourmills.” REPATRIATION OF • RUSSIANS ALLIED DELAY ALLEGED (Rec. 7 p.m.) MOSCOW, July 29. The leader of the Russian Repatriations Commission in Norway (MajorGeneral Ratov), at a press conference, charged the Allies with delay in sending 5000 Russian citizens from the western Ukraine, western Byelo-Russa. and the Baltic States to Russia. Major-General Ratov said the Allied command considered the citizenship* of these Russians “questionable,” and their repatriation was being delayed. in spite of their desire to go Ihome. They were forced to live in special camps, which Russian representatives were not allowed to enter. Many lived in the same camps as Germans, Representatives of the London Poles had free access to these camps. German Corporal Sentenced to Death.— A German corporal. Ernest i Waldmann. was sentenced to death by ! hanging at Munich. He shot dead an i American airman who parachuted from a bomber over Regensburg in 1 December, 1944.—London, July 29.