GERMANY WITHIN

Grey River Argus, 26 June 1946, Page 5

GERMANY WITHIN

BRITISH AND CATHOLICS De-Nazification Question LONDON, June 24. A correspondent of The Times at Herford, Germany, stated that a senior British official said: A situation of some delicacy has arisen between the Military Government and the Roman Catholic Church as a result of the church’s delay in fulfilling de-Nazifica-tion requirements. It is hoped that Catholic leaders will prove accommodating and follow the example of the Evangelical Church. Military Government officials are not sanguine about the chances of avoiding a clash of opinion. It is stated trouble has arisen from a ruling of the Control Commission nearly two months ago that church authorities should form de-Nazification panels, consisting of five to' eight members, two of whom should be laymen. The Evangelical conference early in May recognised the need of such a purge and went far toward accepting the British plan. The North Rhine Free Church submitted names of suitable members for panels.' The Roman Catholic Church has so far not submitted names. The members of the Military Government are aware that the number of persons involved in de-Nazification of the Roman Catholic Church will be small in view of its resistance record. But it is stated that the principle is one in which the Military Government is not prepared to yield. A priest at Minden was recently sentenced to three months’ imprisonment for outspoken attack against British requisitioning of a school building. The correspondent says: “A report on chuiches based on a survey of the Rhineland and Westphalia provinces, which are predominantly Catholic, has been published in the British zone. It says articles highly critical of the British attitude and policy have been circulating widely in Roman Catholic circles. Some priests have rejected the principle of Germany’s moral duty to pay reparations. Both Catholic and Protestant clergy are circulating accounts of the misery and inhumanity supposedly prevailing in Eastern Germany. The report says that while it is only natural that the churches should concern themselves with the care of refugees, anti-Communist propaganda and attempts to set the Western Powers against Russia were a different matter. The report concluded that Catholic clergy were a nationalist rather than a democratic influence in German life, while Protestants were taking a more tolerant and liberal attitude.”

HUNGER IN BRITISH ZONE CATHOLIC ARCHBISHOP’S STATEMENT. LONDON June 23. A correspondent in the British zone of Germany says that many thousands of Roman Catholics heard the Archbishop of Cologne emphasise the gravity o:: the food situation in an address marking the start of the food collection week. The Archbishop urged farmers to give up food voluntarily from their quotas to help the people in the towns. This, he said, was the only way to close the gap between now and the next harvest. Throughout this week food quota committees in every village in the British zone will visit farmers, asking them to cut down their consumption and give up every morsel they can to the hungry thousands in the towns.

Wood Paste as Food GERMANS SUPPLEMENT RATION (Rec. 5.5). LONDON, Juns 25. An Exchange Telegraph Agency correspondent says that many Germans are at present supplementing their food ration with a paste called Mycell, derived from wood chips of a high calory and albumen content. The wood chips are boiled in digesters for the extraction of sugar and resins. The liquor therefrom is fed into bacteria from milk or rotten vegetables. The bacteria works on the liquor, extracting the sugar content, which finally emerges as a tasteless off-white substance resembling sodden cotton wool. Nevertheless, as a calory content, Mycell is high. It is keenly sought. Exiled East Germans RETURN OF SOME TO BE ALLOWED BY WARSAW REGIME. LONDON, June 24. A correspondent in the British zone in Germany stated: There has been a reversal of the policy maintained until lately of expelling Germans from the strip of eastern Germany occupied by Poland just over a year ago. It seems that the Provisinal Polish Government is allowing Germans to return to their former homes and that Germans expelled from Upper Silesia, Pomerania and surrounding territory occupied by Fnland ~”e being allowed to return. Germans with Polishsounding names are being given preference. Conditions are being made that returning Germans must undertake to accept Polish nationality, to learn Polish immediately, and tn absorb themselves into local Polish communities as soon as possible. Many Germans have complied with these conditions and those returning include many recently-released prisoners of war. This change of policy is regarded as inevitable in view of disastrous economic consequences of the expulsions. In 1944, the population of Pomerania was 1,500,000, mostly German. By March of this year the German population had fallen to just over 250,000, and only 370,000 Poles had come into the territory. Eighteen thousand acres were still unoccupied, and this situation could not continue in view of the food shortage.” U.S. OCCUPATION CHANGE POLICE TO TAKE OVER FROM MILITARY (Rec. 5.5). LONDON. June 25. The American occupation of Germany on July 1 will enter an interim period between military occupation and occupation purely by police,' announced the Commander of thei United States zone, General McNarney. Highly mobile military police squads, In the last few months especially, will take over occupation duties.