SWING TO LEFT

New Zealand Herald, Volume 82, Issue 25202, 15 May 1945, Page 6

SWING TO LEFT

ELECTIONS IN FRANCE POLLING FOR COMMUNES (Reed. 11.40 p.m.) LONDON, May 14 The swing to the Left in French politics is again evident in the second ballot of the French municipal elections, says the Exchange Telegraph correspondent in Paris. The figures show that groups of the Left, including Communists, Socialists, Independent and Radical Socialists and Independent Radicals, have won control of 77 per cent of GOO communes, each comprising 4000 inhabitants. These results were known at 6 a.m. today. The results from 304 communes are outstanding. Eire censorship BAN ON ATROCITY NEWS RESTRICTIONS NOW LIFTED (Reed. 6.30 p.m.) LONDON, May 14 Only now are the Irish people learning about the Nazi terror in Europe, says the Daily Telegraph's Dublin correspondent. Irish newspapers were allowed to publish nothing whatever abo it extermination camps and other brutalities until the censorship was lifted at the week-end. A Dublin newspaper for the first time today publishes pictures of Buchenwald concentration camp. War films will be shown when booking arrangements can be made. The former German Minister, who is now living as a'private citizen, intends to remain in Eire. The most lonely people in Eire are the Japanese consul and vice-consul, who have been ignored since Germany's collapse and are no longer protected by the severe newspaper censorship. ERROR IN STRATEGY GERMAN TANK RESERVES (Reed. 6.30 p.m.) LONDON, May 14 The Germans could have smashed the Allied tank invasion of Normandy if their tank reserves had been distributed deeply in France and not concentrated along the coast as Rommel ordered. Colonel-General Guderian, former German Chief of Staff and noted tank expert, gave this opinion in an interview with the British United Press correspondent at Berchtesgaden after his capture. Guderian pleaded for leniency for Germany. He said: "A soldier after battle feels at home with other soldiers. It is like a football match when you shake hands with one another for luck. Businessmen and politicians unfortunately feel and acl otherwise."

PROGRESS IN BURMA HEAVY ENEMY LOSSES (Reed. 11.40 p.m.) LONDON, May 11 The British Fourteenth Army in Burma continues to inflict heavy casualties on the Japanese retreating from the Irrawaddy line east of the MandalayRangoon railway. The South-east Asia Command communique states: Our troops advancing south against opposition down the railway from Prome have reached a point 91 miles from Rangoon. A slight advance has been made east of the Toungoo area against weakening resistance., North-east of Pegu a large dump of Japanese motor transport has been captured. Mopping up continues satisfactorily over the whole area. Allied planes bombed Japanese troop concentrations near Kalaw, on the Siam escape route, also north of Prome, and south-west of Tuongoo. Heavy bombers wrecked a railway bridge "south of Chumphon, on the line to Singapore.

TRAGIC MISTAKE WAR PRISONERS' DEATHS (Reed. 6.30 p.m.) LONDON. May 14 The deaths of more than 400 liberated prisoners of war through drinking methyl alcohol have been reported to the American Third Army authorities by a Russian liaison officer, states the Associated Press correspondent at Nuremberg. The prisoners apparently mistook it for a drinkable liquid when tlicy found it in an abandoned goods train near a camp. SOONG FOR CHUNGKING SOVI ET-CH INESE RELATIONS (Reed. 6.30 p.m.) CHUNGKING, May 13 The Chinese Foreign Minister, Dr T. V. Soong. is expected to visit, Moscow on his way to Chungking when the San Francisco Conference ends, in an attempt to strengthen Chinese-Russian relations, also to learn Soviet intentions, in the Far East. The Chinese press is appealing to Russia to enter the Pacific war. It is rumoured that Russia has warned the Japanese to withdraw their troops from the Manchurian border. RUSSIAN COAL MINES LONDON, May 33 The first stage in the reconstruction of the Donbas mines, in Russia's largest coal production area, has been completed, says Renter's Moscow correspondent. Pits which were flooded bv tho Germans are yielding 40 per cent of their pre-war output, which was 250,000 tons a clay.