LUXEMBOURG’S LIBERATION

Greymouth Evening Star, 2 November 1944, Page 5

LUXEMBOURG’S LIBERATION

TRIAL OF COLLABORATIONISTS RUGBY, November 1. The trials of some hundred collaborationists in Luxembourg will begin within a few days, said the Minister of Foreign Affairs (M. Bech), to-dav. The trials have been delayed because many judges were deported to Germany, but the Courts are now completed and reconstituted by members of the Bar who remained loyal during the occupation. Some of the biggest collaborators escaped to Germany,' but those for trial include M’s.P. and industrialists and even a judge. “All classes are now represented in our prisons,” said M. Bech. Luxembourg introduced the death penalty last year. It has never been passed on a criminal since the French revolution.

M. Bech returned to Luxembourg with his Government six weeks ago. He said that textiles were practically non-existent in the Duchy and there is no hope of household coal before January. However, the industrial district with its huge, steelworks, producing before the war two million tons of steel and nearly three million tons of iron yearly, has not ' suffered through the war. Situated ten miles from the Lorraine battlefront, they are now working for the Allied armies. Trade unions are functioning again and co-operating with the Government. Profits made out of the war were to be confiscated so each citizen could bear a fair share of the burden of reparation estimated to represent several millions.