CZECH CLEAN-UP

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 December 1945, Page 6

CZECH CLEAN-UP

DEPORTATION OF GERMANS LONDON, December 8. Trains are standing ready in Prague to take back to Germany the first batch of the 2,500,000 Germans to be expelled from Czechoslovakia. They are awaiting word from the commanders of the Russian and American zones of Germany that the expulsions can begin. The Czechoslovak plan, submitted to .the three major Powers, provides that 250,000 persons should leave the Republic this month. The first to go will be 80,000 Reich Germans, who will’be repatriated to the Russian zone ol Germany, which, is taking 750,000 persons altogether. The remainder ai e mostly going to the American zone, with a small quota for the French zone. Political undesirables will be included in the second transfer, including former Brownshirt teachers, officials, artists, and lawyers. Among the last to go will be skilled German artisans. The Germans wll be allowed to take clothing, cooking utensils, personal tools, jewellery and money. There are roughly 250,000 Germans loyal to the Republic who will remain in Czechoslovakia. Great progress has been made m the resettlement of the frontier areas of Czechoslovakia. It is claimed that already 1000 persons have been settled on farms formerly held by the Germans. They were selected from peasants with small unremunerative holdings and poor lands in the mountains, wherethe few Germans remaining will eventually be settled by the" Czechs,who must devote themselves to livestock and forestry. 1 Great progress is also reported in resettlement in the north-western and northern industrial areas. COAL SHORTAGE PRAGUE, December 9. The Czech -Government has ordered an immediate nation-wide fiveday week for all industries, togethei with a number of other sweeping measures to conserve Czechoslovakia’s dwindling coal supplies. Schools will close for at least a month from February 15. Electric light advertisements and flood-lighting ol buildings and shop windows are forbidden," Street lighting is reduced.