THE OCCUPATION

Grey River Argus, 20 June 1945, Page 5

THE OCCUPATION

BLACK MARKET IN RATIONS. LONDON, June 18. In Germany an American soldier who hoped to establish himself in the black market business was caught driving a lorry full of army rations. He had in his pocket £20,000 in French, British and American paper money. A black market in stolen army rations is growing in Germany, says the “Daily Mail’s” Weisbaden correspondent. ’ Burgomasters and police chiefs are anxious to stamp out the trafficking before it gets out of hand, and are asking the Allied Military Government for permission to behead or hang culprits when caught. A pound of army, coffee fetches £lO and a small tin of spam £s.‘ The Russian Commander in Berlin, Colonel General Berzarin, has died from injuries received in a motor cycle accident, yesterday. His death was announced by Marshal Zhukov. Berzarin was one of the Soviet representatives at Berlin at the signing of Germany’s unconditional surrender. He later toured the German capital with Air Marshal Tedder. Air Marshal Tedder, Allied Deputy Supreme Commander in the European theatre, has taken over the role of Commander during General Eisenhower’s temporary absence in the United States. The British delegation to the Moscow Reparation Commission left Britain to-day. The leader is the SolicitorGeneral, Sir Walter Moiickton. who is accompanied by an expert staff headed by Sir David Waley, an under-sec-retarv of the Treasurv. The United States delegation is led by M>- Edwm Pauley, and already is at Moscow. Sir W Monckton to-day joined Mr Pauley and Mr Maisky. These three with their staffs—Allied bailiffs in chief—win get to work immediately. lheir job is to ensure that Germany toils and sweats to pay for destruction and repair damage, and that her war potentialities are destroyed for good. It was not until 11 years after the 1918 armistice that byi the Young plan Germany’s total reparation liabilities were fixed—at about 37.000 million gold marks, approximately 2250 million pounds sterling. This time the Allies aim at quicker decisions and results. . , . Mr Pauley opposes dollar payments by Germany which might lead to the encouragement of rebuilding German industry. More probably, the course will be to provide for the draining off of moveable parts of huge German war making machinery. No doubt most of this machinery will go to Russia to assist her great reconstruction plans, but some would come to Britain. One of the problems would be to decide in what form the reparations shall be paid to America. It is believed to be the Russian intention to exact reparations bv way of work., and insist that devastation caused by German invasion and occupation of great areas of Soviet territory shall be restored by the Germans themselves. This again involves the problem of reparations to America, where no German labour is required.