GERMAN REFUGEES

Grey River Argus, 20 September 1945, Page 5

GERMAN REFUGEES

FROM THE EAST. FOLES TO YIELD THEM PLACE IN GERMANY. (Rec. 7.10). LONDON, Sept. 19. A Reuter correspondent in Germanv states: Half a. million of the Polish ex-prisoners of war in Germany will shortly begin to travel. They will go at the rate of four thousand daily. This has been decided following talks in Berlin between a Polish general, Swierezew.sk!, and British military authorities. This, however, will not relieve the food, shortage. British motor lorries will aid in the land transport of the Poles, and in the middle of October some of the Polish men will be moved by sea. Rail transport is impracticable at present because of war damage and of the fact that the Russians removed one set of tracks on the main lines in then- zorm . The British zone undoubtedly will have to take some of 'the Germans evicted from the new Polish territory. Many thousands have already filtered across the boundary at night despiteroad blocks. The problem of these homeless millions remains the mostcatastrophic in Europe. The stream from Poland is unending. The British section of the Allied Control Commission has announced that wheat is being imported, into Germany so that German civilians will not starve this winter. This decision is- economic, and is not dictated by sentiment or haphazard guesses. It will be necessary for all Germans to work to produce coal and other things which the Allies require, and they could hot work, nor could law and order be maintained, if conditions of starvation arose. ,The food available locally is insufficient to keep the people alive in the big industrial areas. The British took very prompt steps to increase food production when thev assumed control of NorthWestern Germany. These measures, however, would not produce food until the 1946 harvest.