POLLS PENDING

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21923, 18 January 1946, Page 4

POLLS PENDING

GERMAN COUNCILS

U.S. OCCUPATION ZONE

FARBEN PLANTS DISAPPEAR

(9 a.m.) BERLIN, Jan. 17. The Germans in ■ the American zone would elect local councils next week, said the deputy military governor of .he zone, Lieutenant-General Lucius Clay. Voting would be held in 11,000 communities, each with a population of under 20,000, and, although the results would not go far towards revealing the political trend of occupied Germany, it would be a valuable start in re-educating the Germans in the processes of democratic selfgovernment. General Clay predicted that the results would be determined more by personalities than parties. It is expected that at least 70 per cent, of those entitled to vote would do so.

General Clay revealed that the United States War Department had raised the status of certain categories of Nazis at present under arrest. Some of them were being released. The great chemical firm, I. G. Farmen Industrie, is now only a name. The economics division of the United States Military Government announced that 42 manufacturing plants, 86 sales offices, and 26 miscellaneous installations had been taken over by the Americans since July 5, 1945. The Americans have destroyed two munitions plants and are at present moving machinery from 12 for reparations.