ON HOME SOIL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25814, 9 April 1945, Page 6

ON HOME SOIL

NEW CZECH GOVERNMENT COALITION NATIONAL FRONT (Rec. 9.10 p.m.) LONDON, Apl. 7. M. Zdenek Fierlinger, the 55-year-old Czechoslovak Ambasador to Moscow, has formed the first Czechoslovak combined Government on heme soil six years after the occupation of Prague. It is a coalition “ national front,” with the Left prevailing. Communists are strongly represented.

In the Cabinet, consisting of 25 members, three seats each have been allotted to Czech Communists, Slovak Communists, Social Democrats, Czech Socialists (formerly Dr Benes’s party), the Czech Catholic Party, and the Slovak Democrat Party. are feur non-party members. Sixteen Ministers are Czechs and the rest Slovaks. Five of the 10 Ministers from the London “ exile ” Government have been given portfolios. M. Masaryk remains Foreign Minister, and General Svoboda (commander of the Czech treops fighting in Russia) takes over national defence.

The key portfolio of the Interior goes to Vaclav Nosek, a Communist, who has lived in London during the war. M. Ripka, formerly Minister of State, takes over the new Department of Foreign Trade.

The Moscow radio announced that the new Czechoslovak Government yesterday met for the first time at Kosice and sent telegrams of greetings to Marshal Stalin, Mr Churchill, and President Roosevelt.