“GOING AHEAD”

Greymouth Evening Star, 23 July 1945, Page 5

“GOING AHEAD”

POTSDAM CONFERENCE COMMITTEES’ INVESTIGATION LONDON, July 21. It was officially announced at Potsdam on Saturday that “the conference is going serious business has been done.” The American delegation at Potsdam reports that the Big Three since July 17 have met daily, averaging almost three hours to a meeting. The foreign secretaries, since July 16, have met daily and put' in hours of work. Numerous sub-committees are working late in order to complete the drafts to be put on the Big Three’s desks for final discussions. STALIN’S~GUESTS (Rec. 11.55 p.m.) LONDON, July 22. It is officially announced that the Big Three met to-day, when the conference resumed full-scale discussions. Mr Churchill and Mr Truman and members of the Anglo-American delegations were guests of Mr Stalin last night. REPARATION PAYMENTS. LONDON, July 22. “Mr. Churchill, Mr. Stalin and Mr. Roosevelt at Yalta reached a secret agreement requiring Germany to pay 20,000,000,000 dollars’ reparations in five years. Russia was to receive 10,000,000,000 dollars, Britain 4,000,000.000 dollars and the United States 4,000,000.000 dollars, the remainder to be divided among minor German victims in Europe,” says the Washington correspondent of the New York “Herald-Tribune.” “Mr. Stalin is reported to have said, in effect: ‘lf you leave the situation to me I will get 30.000,000,000 dollars out of them.’ Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Churchill demurred, presumably after hearing expert advice on the amount Germany could nay. The British and American leaders also wanted to make the term of payment 20 years. Mr. Stalin got his way on the terms, and Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Churchill got theirs on the amount.” U.S.A. NEEDS BASES NEW YORK, July 21. “Mr. Truman, in his statement at Potsdam that the United States did not desire territory as a result of the war, apoarently intended to convey the idea that the United States would not demand complete sovereignty over anv new territory,” says the “New York Times.” “However, the attitude of responsible departments in Washington and the emphatic reaction of Congress was that the President could not have intended to waive United Stales rights to control Pacific bases which the Navy considers essential for American security. “Observers recalled that the American delegation to the San Francisco Conference discussed the trusteeship question with other nations only in general terms, and the delegation explained to representatives of the Navy and State departments that everything was being arranged to protect American rights to strategic islands. There did not appear to be any objection to United States claims to Japanese-mandated islands among the other United Nations at San Francisco.”

RUSSIAN NAVY. MOSCOW, July 22.' "Our people will create new fighting ships and new bases for the Navy,” said Generalissimo Stalin in an order of the day paying tribute to the Red Navy’s feats in the war. -„;‘‘The Navy effectively protected bur flanks, which rested on the sea, and assured the uninterrupted functioning of our communications,” said the order. “Pravda,” referring to Mr Stalin s Order ot the Day, “Russia is and must be a great naval Power,” says: “Russia abuts two oceans; every crumb ol experience in naval wa/fare must be digested and assimilated by our sailors.” JEWISH CONGRESS APPEAL LONDON, July 20. “The World Jewish Congress has sent an urgent appeal to the Potsdam conference, drawing attention to the plight of many thousands of Jews m Germany and asking for immediate steps to be taken to end their misery, e says the diplomatic correspondent ol “The Times.” “The congress decided to appeal directly to the three Allied leaders after' other representations had failed. The European diyision ot the congress, on the basis of reports from several detention and repatriation camps, says that nearly three months after the liberation ol Europe thousands of victims of the Nazi terror are still detained as virtual prisoners ‘in conditions of most abject misery, being treated with callous and shameful neglect and indifference’ by the Allied military authori“The European division of the congress on April 26 wrote to Mr Churchill asking permission for a delegation to visit the camps. Mr Churchill, on May 5, replied that the question was for military authorities, ana’be had referrred it to the War Office with an expression of his hope that the request would be given sympathetic consideration. A Jewish spokesman said there was a deadlock in the War Office, but ths Foreign Office had shown sympathetic interest throughout. “The conditions in the Langeestut Camp, housing 1200 Jewish women, were described as appalling. The Jewish authorities reported that there were 18,000 inmates of Belsen, 12.000 of whom were in hospital. Between 70 and 80 per cent, were Jewish. At the Lingen camp Jews were housed in ‘indescribably filthy’ hutments, with a serious lack of doctors, nurses, and medical supplies, and the Nazis were still controlling their former victims. •