A CZECH PROBLEM

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 60, 8 September 1945, Page 7

A CZECH PROBLEM

EXPULSION OF GERMANS

LONDON, September 6. There was some confusion over reports of mass expulsions' of Sudeten Germans from Czechoslovakia, said the Czech Prime Minister, M. Fierlinger, at a Press conference. He explained that they were mostly refugees who fled before the advancing" Red Army, and totalled about 1,000,000.

The majority came from Upper Silesia, and others were German colonists sent from the Baltic States to Poland.

M. Fierlinger stated that his Government was preparing a plan for submission to the United Nations for the evacuation of Sudeten Germans, of whom there were two categories, first, active Nazis in concentration camps, and, secondly, those coming within the scope of the recent mobilisation of labour throughout Czechoslovakia. He added that the majority of the 3,000,000 Sudeten Germans would eventually be evacuated from Czechoslovakia.

M. Fierlinger said that the Czechs would probably ask for certain rectifications of the Czech border at the peace * conference. These requests were reasonable.

Czechoslovakia was eager to establish relations with democratic Austria, Hungary, and Rumania. He thought the majority of his Government would support Yugoslavia's claims to Trieste. M. Fierlinger revealed that 50 per cent of the Skoda works has been repaired.