ARRESTS TOTAL 50,000

Chronicle (Levin), 12 October 1949, Page 5

ARRESTS TOTAL 50,000

f N.Z.P.A.—

-Reuter.

Czech Purge Brings Fear To liddle Oass

CopyrigJit)

Received Wednesday, 9.25 a.m. PRAGUE, Oct. 11. Fresh arrests in Prague and otheV parts of Czechoslovakia were reported today to be on a larger scale than ever before. Last night and early this morning security police went (their rounds after a brief weekend lull. Evidence from first-hand sources inaicates that the arrests have been going on for about five weeks, reliable reports stating that about 10,000 people have been arrested in Prague and 40,000 throughout the country. Police vans have again called main.y at the residences of surviving members of the middle class, reinforcing the theory now held here that the arrests are anned at finally disintegrating this group, regarded by the Communists as the most likely to contain hostile elements. The police refuse to give information to relatives and the authorities have ignored invitations from foreign Press representatives to issue explanatory statements. In those cases where it has been possible to find some clue to the fate of those arrested it is learned that they were transported almost immediately to forced labour camps. Prague and the other towns affected remain outwardly normal, except that by early evening the streets are much less crowded than usual. Behind the apparent normaiity there is tension and among the class of people coneerned real anxiety and fear.