CZECH FOREIGN MINISTER MAY REMAIN IN U.S.

Greymouth Evening Star, 8 November 1949, Page 6

CZECH FOREIGN MINISTER MAY REMAIN IN U.S.

LONDON, ’ November 7.—“ The Czechoslovak Foreign Minister (Dr Vladimir Clementis), who has been attending the United Nations’ meetings in New York, is believed to be faced with the necessity of deciding either to return to his country or remain in America,” says the diplomatic correspondent of the ' Daily Telegraph.” “If he returns he is likely to be arrested, with consequent imprisonment, for alleged deviation from Moscow Communist doctrine. One. fact that will weigh heavily in making a decision is that his wife is in Czechoslovakia.”

The Vienna correspondent of the United Press says that Western diplomats report that the Czech Ministry of the Interior issued a confidential ordei* to all regional offices of the political police last month requesting the arrest..of 50,000 “unreliable or hostile elements.” They were to be used in labour camps, according to the order.

The move is believed to have been prompted by complaints from Moscow that Czech heavy industry and uranium production had been neglected. About 10,000 people, a quarter of them women, are said to have been arrested. Eight thousand are reported to be working in the Jackymov mines. - The Prague correspondent ot the Associated Press says that the Czech Defence Minister, General Ludvik Svoboda (above), has announced that the Government has decided to release soldiers from the army after five months’ training, instead of two years’ training, if they agree to become coalminers- for five years.