Refugees In School

Press, Volume C, Issue 29695, 13 December 1961, Page 17

Refugees In School

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) ELISABETHVILLE. Dec. 12. Seven hundred European refugees, victims of the United Nations-Katanga righting, which has turned •rieir homes and front gardens into a battle-ground, ave gathered in Elisabethville’s three biggest schools, according to the British United Press. The first refugees began trickling in at the beginning of the month before shoot.ng began. They are now livng as many as six to a room, i ating food bought from funds provided by the Belgian Government. They pay about £1 a day for board and lodging, but any with financial difficulties are admitted free. The local population appears to have adapted itself to the state of war, and many shops reopened today for the first time since Tuesday.

Big Gates.— With only half of their Pakistan-India tour completed, the M.C.C. have pulled in over a million spectators —more than the number who paid at the gate to watch all first class cricket in England last summer, said the "Daily Mails" cricket correspondent. (Jullundur, December 12.)

Earlier, it had been reported that the United Nations was preparing its positions in a bid to force a quick end to the fighting in Elisabethville. In spite of United Nations precautions, two lorry-loads of white mercenaries are reported to have got through to Elisabethville, probably from Jadotvilie. It is estimated that there are now at least 400 Europeans fighting for the Katangese. United Nations strength is unconfirmed, but it is reported to be at least 3500, several hundred more than the Katangese. A "mercy train’’ carrying 380 European women and children arrived at Ndola, Northern Rhodesia, from Elisabethville yesterday. Mrs Zita Cohen, wife of Robert Cohen, the former world bantam-weight boxing champion, now in Elisabethville, said on arriving at Ndola: “The United Nations soldiers were animals—especially the Indians. “They are shelling, bombing and shooting indiscriminately.” (Earlier Reports, Page 24.)