STALIN SLIGHTLY INDISPOSED

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24633, 1 August 1945, Page 7

STALIN SLIGHTLY INDISPOSED

Two Days’ Spell From Work

MEETINGS AT POTSDAM (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 12.30 a.m.) LONDON, July 31. Mr Stalin has been slightly indisposed for the last two days, but he will attend a meeting of tlmßig Three this afternoon. “Mr Stalin’s indisposition is believed to be nothing more than a slight cold, but his doctor took all precautions to safeguard the health of the 66-year-old leader,” says the Associated Press correspondent. “A number of his Russian colleagues saw Mr Stalin while he was indoors. ' “Mr Molotov filled a dual role on Sunday, taking Mr Stalin’s place at the round-table meeting with Mr Attlee and Mr Truman, in addition to conferring with the British and United States Foreign Ministers, Mr Bevin and Mr Byrnes.” Reuter’s correspondent says: “The only other news leaking out through the wall of secrecy surrounding the conference is that Mr Averell Harriman (United States Ambassador to Moscow), who is attending, intends to return to Moscow to-morrow; but whether this means that the conference is drawing to a close is not disclosed.” The Exchange Telegraph Agency correspondent says; “Mr Attlee took an hour off yesterday and talked to British troops working in the area of the conference buildings. He thanked them for the effort they had made in assuring supplies and maintaining communications during the conference.

BRITISH TROOPS ENTER VIENNA

ALLIED OCCUPATION - ZONES LONDON. July 30.

The first British troops marched into Vienna to-day to take over the British zone of occupation in the Austrian capital. A friendly welcome was accorded the troops as they moved through roads still littered with smashed vehicles and damaged houses. Soviet sentries along the road saluted when they saw the Union Jack painted on the sides of British jeeps. “Vienna, within the city boundaries, has been divided into five zones,” writes a correspondent. “The Russians hold all the eastern portion of the city on the left bank of the Danube with one sector which drives a wedge through the British zone lying to the south. “The British zone embodies the old diplomatic quarter and the district of Semering farther east. The French control the district of Hernals, lying west of the city, while the Americans hold the north-Western areas round Darling. The Americans will control Vienna’s main airport. “One small area in the centre of the city adjoining the Danube canal will remain an international zone.

"Although the city is not so badly damaged as Berlin, and though normal life is already beginning to return, Vienna gives the impression of a dead city. The damage is severe and prewar Vienna no longer exists to-day. "It is a starving city, without gaiety, and the first main problems to be tackled are the typhus epidemic and providing food, fuel, and accommodation for the thousands of homeless. The population when war broke out was 2,500,000. To-day it is estimated at not more than 1,600,000. “All four occupying Powers have started with the policy of encouraging a free, independent Austria, and an Austrian government will soon be recognised by the Western Allies, although it is doubtful whether it will be the government now recognised by the Russians. “Reconstruction plans ftfr this great capital are to be divided between the Powers, with Lieutenant-General McCreery representing the British troops in Austria.”

AT.TJED CONTROL OF GERMANY

FIRST MEETING OF COUNCIL LONDON, July 30. The Allied Control Council for Germany held its first formal session in Berlin to-day under the chairmanship of General Eisenhower, the United States representative, reports a correspondent. The Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the French Republic were represented respectively by Marshal Zhukov, Field-Marshal Montgomery, and General Koenig. It was agreed that the chairmanship of the council should rotate every calendar month in the following order as from August;— General Eisenhower, Field-Marshal Montgomery, General Koenig, and Marshal Zhukov. Meetings will be held on the tenth, twentieth, and thirtieth of each month. The correspondent adds that the four deputies are to submit proposals at the next meeting for the establishment and bringing into operation of the organs of control provided for in the agreement on control machinery in Germany. , The council took note with approval of the arrangements reached for the allocation of the French sector.

HERRIOT GIVES EVIDENCE

TRIAL OF RETAIN LONDON, , July 30. Marshal Petain’s regime was a “complete dictatorship” said ' M. Edouard Herriot, a former Prime Minister of France, giving evidence at the trial of Marshal Petain. “From the beginning I was wholly against an armistice,” said M. Herriot. “Although Marshal Petain declared at Bordeaux that he was determined not to leave France, he agreed that the Government might go. The agreement was broken. We never sailed. Some of our military leaders wanted to. surrender. We told them that they were the judges of the military situation, but they had no right to demand a general armistice involving all France. “We intended to defend the Republic. We still had the fleet and the empire. It was totally different from 1870, when France stood alone. France had Britain and the United States at her side. I told’M. Reynaud at the time of the collapse that I would prefer to be shot by the Germans rather than be an object of disdain to Frenchmen.” M. Herriot said he was arrested when he tore off his! decorations after seeing French officers decorated with the French Legion of Honour and the German Iron Cross simultaneously near Napoleon’s tomb. The president of the court announced that to-day’s sitting would end early because Marshal Petain was suffering from laryngitis. . Early in to-day’s hearing, the judge announced that he had received a note from Marshal Petain’s doctor saying that Marshal Petain could not bear the strain of a lengthy session.

• King Gustav Visits Denmark.—King Gustav of Sweden has arrived in Copenhagen for a courtesy visit to King Christian of Denmark. It is the first time that King Gustav, who is 87, has left Sweden since 1939. King Christian remained in Denmark throughout the German occupation,— Copenhagen, July 30. Algerian Municipal Elections,—Results so far available in the Algerian municipal elections, in which women Arabs voted for the first time, showed $ strong swing to the Left-wing resistance organisation, France Combattante, which has won decisive majorities throughout the country.—Algiers, July 30.