GERMAN ASSETS

Greymouth Evening Star, 29 July 1946, Page 5

GERMAN ASSETS

ACTION BY RUSSIANS FIVE ARRESTS MADE IN AUSTRIA SOVIET CLAIMS REPUDIATED (Rec. 10.20 a.m.) LONDON, July 28. The Russians have arrested five Austrians closely connected with the administration of Jewish property seized by the Nazis, says the- Daily Telegraph’s Vienna correspondent. This is the latest development in the dispute over the ownership of formei German assets in Austria and the exact definition of such assets. The Germans, after the anschluss, founded the“ German Estate Development Company” to supervise the administration of confiscated Jewish estates. The Austrians, after the liberation, changed the company s name to the “Austrian Estate Development Company,” and appointed Dr Oscar Willheim, a dispossessed Jewish owner, as chief administrator. Now the Russians have arrested Willheim and his three principal assistants, and also another official concerned with the operation of the estates, many of which the Russians claim on the ground that the Aiu trians have not .carried ,out prdeis, and have tried to hinder implementation of the Potsdam agreement. General Vladimir Kurassov, who has succeeded Marshal Koniev as Russian commander-in-chief in Austria, refused to discuss a proposal at the Allied Control Council that the Austrian Government should be given full control of the production, export, and distribution of Austria s oil resources. The British and American representatives had supported the proposal. • J n The Austrian Parliament has unanimously approved the nationalisation of key industries, including some claimed by Russia. Parliament repudiated the Russians’ claims to 13 industries, including the Zistersdori oilfields and the Danube Shipping Company.