SOVIET REMOVAL

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21980, 26 March 1946, Page 5

SOVIET REMOVAL

GERMAN INDUSTRIES TRANSFER TO OWN ZONE WESTERN ALLIES AFFECTED (10 a.m.) LONDON. March 25. Dr. Paul president of the provincial administration of Thuringia, disclosed that the Russians had bodily removed several industries from Czechoslovakia and started them again in Thuringia in the Russian zone of occupation, says the Daily Telegraph's correspondent in Berlin. The announcement, which caused considerable surprise, disclosed .that the industries concerned included, first, Germany’s largest ball-bearing plant, the Kugelfischer works at Schweinfurt; secondly, the jewellery industry at Gablonz; thirdly, glass polishing works at Haida, 35 miles west of Liberec.

The correspondent points out that the western Allies are entitled to 50 per cent of the Kugelfischer plant, which is valued at £025,000. The other half is allotted to Russia and Poland. The correspondent asks how the restarting of the plant is to be reconciled with the Allied Control Council’s decision that the manufacture of ball and roller bearings in future will not be permitted in Germany. The Times’ correspondent in Berlin says that the United States DeputyMilitary Governor. Lieutenant-General Lucius Clay, announced that the four Powers had reached an agreement on .the future level of German industry. The plan is based on the operation of Germany as a economic but not necessarily a political unit. He added that if certain parts of Germany were made into separate economic units it would be r.ecessarv to revise the whole plan.