ZONE SOVIETISED

New Zealand Herald, Volume 82, Issue 25396, 28 December 1945, Page 5

ZONE SOVIETISED

RUSSIANS IN GERMANY ECONOMIC PLANNING V AIM ED POPULAR REACTION LONDON, Dor. 20 With veteran Communists in key posts, a programme of Sovictisation is being carried out in the Russian occupation zone of Germany, says the Associated Press correspondent, summing up his observations during an eight-day tour of the zone with four other American correspondents. They were the first Western correspondents admitted to the Russian zone and entered under the exchange plan, which will take Russians into the American zone. Some Complain of Shortages According to leaders of the German Provincial Governments the programme is progressing satisfactorily. r l he reaction of the German "little man," however, ranges from optimism among the new farmers to helpless doubt. The people of Halle, north-west ol Leipzig, complained chiefly of shortages of food and clothing, and Russian reparations collections, which they called plundering. 1/eaders of the provincial Government, however, said that no one was starving, that rations and quotas were being filled and that industrial activity exceeded that ill the Western /.one.

Saxony and the whole Russian zone have been geared to a strict, planned economy, according to plans drafted by the State Governments at Marshal Zhukov's direction. Factories are run by boards composed of directors and workers' council representatives. Junker Estates Divided The German Governments, with the approval of the Soviet authorities, have split up 7000 Junkers' estates among 281,855 new holders throughout the zone. Along with the land there has been a division of tools and livestock. Each new holder received from 12 to 19 acres, for which he must pay the Government. The correspondent says the Hod Army commanders dodged all questions on the size of the occupation forces and their redeploy rnent. The Soviet Military Governor of Dresden said the Russians had no plan for transferring their Military Government to civilian status as the British and Americans proposed to do.