NEWS IN BRIEF

Greymouth Evening Star, 21 July 1945, Page 5

NEWS IN BRIEF

COMMUNIST TORTURED NEW YORK, July 17. “Police torture and brutality were revealed to journalists by Jaime Schmirgeld, secretary of the organising committee of the Communist Party, who was given up for dead when he vanished after his arrest last ■May,” says the “New York Times’s” correspondent in Buenos Aires. “Schmirgeld said he was first beaten and tortured for two hours by the Argentine political police, and'was then for five hours put under the dreaded ‘picana electrica’ which extracts confessions from all except the most valiant. He said he was kept in a damp, cold dungeon for 28 days with barely enough food to keep him alive. Finally he was released after a policeman had threatened him with death 11' he proceeded to any action for damages.” STRIKE IN~TRIESTE LONDON, July 20. The Jugoslav Telegraph Agency says that a second 24-hour strike which broke out in Trieste on Thursday was a protest against the arrest by the Allies of political prisoners. A manifesto which the anti-Fascist organisation in Trieste has issued declares that the arrested persons included George Jaksetic, “one of Trieste’s best fighters for freedom.” ARRESTS IN FINLAND LONDON. July 20. It is officially announced that Helsinki police have arrested a number of Finnish Army officers, who are charged with smuggling, and concealing weapons-and ammunition for use against the Finnish Government. The arrested men include Generals Aero. Nithoila and Haathi, who were all on tho operations staff. U-BOAT REFUGEES. LONDON, July 20. Instructions issued to the Argentine police indicates that the watch for Üboats surfacing in Argentine waters is being tightened up. Additional precautions are being taken against secret landings from U-boats. INDIAN CONSTITUTION (Recd. 11 a.m.) ~LONDON, July 20. Reuter’s New Delhi correspondent reports that Lord Wavell has called a meeting of Provincial Governors for August 1 and 2. It is believed that the situation resulting from the failure of the Simla conference will be discussed. DAMAGE IN HOLLAND. RUGBY, July 20. The total war damage and loss inflicted by the Germans on the Dutch is put at 15,000 million Dutch guilders—about 2000 million sterling—in estimates worked out by the Dutch Central Brueau for Statistics in conjunction with the Ministry of Finance, states a message from The Hague. GAS VICTIMS. (Rec. 10.15 a.m.) LONDON, July 20. It has now been revealed that the only known British casualties from poison gas occurred in a Luftwaffe raid on Bari in December, 1943, from British gas. A 5001 b bomb hit a British ship carrying gas shells for use in retaliation against - the Germans if they first used gas. Almost all the crew were killed. POLISHGENERAL. (Rec. 11.20 a.m.) The Press' Association’s diplomatic correspondent reports that General Gustav Paskitwitz, second in command of the Polish Corps in Britain, has been dismissed from the Polish Army because he announced he recognised the authority of the Government of National Unity. The dismissal was announced to him at the express order of M. Rackiewicz. He has been deprived of rights and privileges and ordered to consider himself a civilian..