LATE MESSAGES

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 May 1945, Page 2

LATE MESSAGES

CHANNEL ISLANDS.

LONDON, May 13. An immediate check is being made of the Channel Islands tomato, and potato supplies. Potatoes are believed to be almost non-existent. The Germans were so hungry in the closing stages of occupation that they _ pilfered potatoes from fields. The' Germans, of whom there are. 26,600 are now concentrated in prepared areas. A start will be made with ship- i ping them to Britain in a few days. I Enough food has been landed to last the population for a fortnight. Cargoes of clothing and medical supplies will enable reserves to be built up. Residents have been issued with ration books and will be allowed to-buy al full year’s ration of clothes, without 1 coupons, from the relief cargoes. The people said that they would have, starved but for food parcels, mostly Canadian. . | Jersey’s great dairy herds are in; splendid condition, says the “Daily Express’s” correspondent. The Germans took great care of them for their rich milk. Channel Islanders are busy rounding up collaborators some of whom are already under lock and key. O ne i who is still at large is a rich farmer | whom the islanders knew as Pierre Laval. Police and military are still, I searching for him. Another is an Englishwoman who publicly stamped on the Union Jack. The islanders have already dealt with a couple oi dozen) women. One dr two were tarred and 11 feathered, one was thrown in the harbour and the others tied to railings. Swastikas are painted on some houses with a woman’s name under- ■ neath. The great majority of the islanders put up a tremendous fight against the Nazis even when the ration was at the lowest.

RUSSIAN CAPTURES.

■LONDON, May 13. A Soviet communique states: Forces of the Leningrad Command are continuing to accept the surrender of German troops/ and to-day accepted the surrender of 399,994 German troops, besides 2235 officers and 14 generals. Troops of the 2nd White Russian Command at the Vistula’s mouth, east of Danzig and northwest of Gdynia, captured 15,833 Germans. Troops of the Ist, 4th and 3rd Ukrainian Command in Czechoslovakia and Austria accepted the surrender of 145,000 Germans and four generals. Troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Command captured 234,459 German troops, besides eight generals, including Lieutenant-Gen-eral Liberuann, commander at Brno. CLOTHES FROM GERMANS

LONDON, May 13. British Military Government authorities in Luneburg ordered the levy of one set of clothes for every German, man, woman and child, says a correspondent. The clothes will be sorted out following completion and collection and handed over to former slave workers of Belsen and. other camps and housing displaced persons. Colonel C. G. Wood, military governor of Luneburg province stated that, other clothing levies would be imposed on the German civilians. Tens of thousands of former slave workers from Belsen are still wearing the striped prison uniform, says the Exchange Telegraph Agency correspondent. Games and other amenities are also being exacted from German civilians. The military governor of Luneburg disclosed he is at present supervising repatriation of two hundred thousand east-bound repatriates. He has already returned eighty-thousand people west-bound to France, Belgium and Holland to [which countries he is repatriating four thousand daily. The Germans 'have the responsibility of feeding all I liberated people remaining on Gerjman soil. The military governor ex:pects that the complete repatriation of displaced people will occupy a year.

NORWAY’S CROWN PRINCE.

LONDON, May 13

Four thousand “Red Devils” of the British First Airborne Division, with a kilted pipe band, formed the guard ot honour for the Crown Prince Olaf on his return to Norway, says the British United Press Oslo correspondent. He was welcomed by 250,000 Norwegians and paraded two miles through Oslo to the palace which was Quisling’s headquarters since the Royal Family left five years ago. The Prince was accompanied by the Ministers of Defence, Mr. Torp, Commerce, Mr. Neilson, and of Justice, Mr. Void. He travelled to Norway in a British convoy comprising the cruiser Devonshire, lour destroyers and six minesweepers, which are now anchored in Oslo harbour. British airborne troops are supervising the withdrawal of 400,000 German troops to reservation areas. The former Oslo Chief of Police, Kristian Welander, who spent two years in German prisons, has resumed his old post. PACIFIC OPERATION’S.

NEW YORK, May 13. Army fliers sank at least one Japanese ship, damaged a warship and a cargo ship, and barely missed a troop transport during a heavy raid on Kataeka naval base on Shumushu, in the Kurile Islands, last Friday, says the Associated Press correspondent at Aleutian Air Force Headquarters. The ships were part of a convoy, 15 of which sneaked into Katoeka, presumably under cover of fog. Mitchells attacked from masthead height with 3001 b bombs. The convoy was the largest spotted in the lles , waters since September 11, 1943. The presence of a troop transport, plus cargo ships, indicated that the Japanese had decided to reinforce the Northern Kuriles.