ITALY’S FORMER COLONIES

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25309, 8 October 1947, Page 7

ITALY’S FORMER COLONIES

BIG-FOUR MEETING IN LONDON (Rec. 7 p.m.) LONDON, October 6. The Foreign Ministers’ deputies, meeting in London, listed New Zealand among the countries claiming the right to be consulted about the disposal of the former Italian colonies. Other countries on the list are Australia, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Ethiopia, Greece, India, Pakistan, Poland, and South Africa.

Countries having territorial claims against the former Italian Empire are Egypt, Italy, and Ethiopia. The British deputy (Sir Noel Charles) circulated a communique embodying a British proposal that the interested parties should be those governments which considered themselves interested. Sir Noel Charles emphasised the importance of hearing the views of the Dominions’ Governments which fought in Africa, but the Foreign Ministers’ deputies did not agree on which interested governments should be invited to express their views on the disposal of the former Italian colonies. The delegates, after a long discussion, agreed that a commission should soon leave to visit Libya, Eritrea, and Somaliland. No decision was reached on whether two commissions should visit the colonies. The Soviet deputy maintained that the difference in the problems of the North African and East African colonies necessitated two commissions. MEETING OF FOREIGN MINISTERS (Rec. 7 p.m.) PARIS, October 6. The French Foreign Office has announced that Russia has accepted November 25 as the opening date for the Foreign Ministers’ conference in London. SAAR ELECTION DETAILED RESULTS OF VOTING (Rec. 7 p.m.) LONDON, October 6. In the Saar elections, the Christian People’s Party (Conservative) received 230,063 votes and won 28 seats. The Social Democrats, with 147,261 votes, won 17 seats, the Communists, with 37,924 votes, won two seats, and the Democrats (Right Wing), with 34,253 votes, won three seats. The Communists, with more votes than the Democrats, received fewer seats because of the system of distributing seats between the constituencies.

AUCTION SALE OF GERMAN . ASSETS

EXPERIMENT BY ALLIES IN STUTTGART (Rec. 10 p.m.) LONDON, October 7. The Berlin correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph” says: “The British and United States Military Governments are awaiting with great interest the outcome of the sale by auction of eight German coal wholesale businesses at Stuttgart, in the American zone, because they hope to learn whether sale by auction is going to be a practicable and satisfactory means of disposing of millions of pounds’ worth of German which will eventually have to be dispersed in the Western zones, being regarded as undue concentrations of economic power. “To avoid irregularities in the sale of the Stuttgart properties, bidders will be limited to Stuttgart residents and foreigners who have funds available in Germany or who have lost similar property during the war.”

UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFIT . FOR GERMANS

(Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON, October 7. The Berlin correspondent of “The Times” says that a Government ordinance restoring to German workers the right to unemployment benefit came into effect in the British zone yesterday. This right, established under a law of 1927, was withdrawn by the Nazis in September, 1939, when payment of relief on proof of need was substituted.

Hungarian General Sentenced fo Dea^h. —The People’s Court in Budapest has sentenced to death General Gustave Jany. the former commander of the Hungarian 2nd Army, which fought for Hitler against Russia.— Budapest, October 6.