NAZI INTENTIONS

Grey River Argus, 20 March 1940, Page 5

NAZI INTENTIONS

PEASANTS FOR POLAND More particulars are now available of the plans which the German Government is making to transfer German peasantry from south-western Germany to the recently annexed districts of Poland, from which the Poles are to be expelled, reports the Rotterdam correspondent of “The Times.” The areas from which these peasants are to be withdrawn are the closely populated country districts of Baden and Wurtemberg. The area is to weed out these districts, so as to create larger farms on which a more intensive production may be carried on. It is being pushed by the Ministry of Food, and at the instance of this department a census is being taken of the peasants with the object of finding out which are the families most firmly established and which are more suitable for transfer. It is reckoned that about 60,000 families could be taken from Baden, and another 58,000 from Wurtemberg. A very thorough clearance of Poles is evidently reckoned on. Meanwhile the 100,000 Germans from Volhynia, who are also- destined to be settled in Poland, are gradually arriving at the concentration camps round Lodz.

WAR AND DAMAGE.

A special corespondent of £he “Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung,” who has visited one of the camps, says that so far about 60,000 have arrived. After they have been registered and their personal particulars noted, they are dispatched to other camps inside the Reich, where they will remain until conditions are ready for their settlement in Poland. The German Command have issued a summary ruling on claims for reparation of war damages in the Eastern theatre of operations. It declares that all damage committed before October 26 is to be classed as war damage for which the former Polish Government are held responsible. As, however, a Polish State no longer exists, and as the German Government is not the legal successor of the Polish State, they cannot entertain any claims. An exception will be made in favour of claims by persons of German race, to which special consideration will be granted. The admission that the German Government is not the legal successor of the Polish State is worth noting for future reference.