RUSSIAN PLANS AS TO CZECHOSLOVAKIA

Wanganui Chronicle, 17 January 1949, Page 5

RUSSIAN PLANS AS TO CZECHOSLOVAKIA

LATE DR. BENES ADVISER HAS ESCAPED TO THE U.S.A. WASHINGTON, Jan. 15 (Recd. 6.45' P m >-—Mr. Arnost Heidrich, secretarygeneral of the Czechoslovakian Foreign Office, and for 14 years legal and political adviser to the lat e Dr. Eduard Benes, has escaped from Prague and come to Washington with a detailed story of Communist activities and plans in Eastern Europe. Heidrich was brought here by the United States authorities and has mad e a full report of conditions in Czechoslovakia to the State Department, according to the New York “Times” correspondent, James Reston. Heidrich reports that Stalin is trying to build an “Eas'ern Ruhr” in Czechoslovakia and Poland. Activities of the Communists in Czechoslovakia do not suggest the Soviet is at present preparing for an aggressive war against the west. “But they seem to be developing Czechoslovakia primarily as a source of economic reconstruction in Russia,” says Mr. Heidrich. H e says that Russia is getting some tanks and guns from Czechoslovakia, but is demanding shipments of these in semi-finished condition so that they can be finished in secret in RussiaHeidrich says it is obvious they do not trust the Czech army and do not feel they c ould wage war against the west. The Russians are using every possible kind of pressure and police State tactics to gain control over the economic life of the whole of the Eastern European area, with a view to rebuilding their own strength at the expense of others.