FORBIDDEN ZONES

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 19, 23 July 1945, Page 5

FORBIDDEN ZONES

SORTING OF SURRENDERED GERMANS

RUGBY* July 21. In British-occupied Germany there are two large zones which are forbidden lands to all but a few authorised British officers. There the remnants of the German Army who surrendered to the British are being sorted out. In the past month, at the rate of thousands daily, German soldiers have been leaving these areas under the "barleycorn" scheme to bring in what looks like proving to be a bumper German harvest, says a correspondent. But hundreds of thousands of German soldiers are still left in the zones.

The roads into them are sealed off. and British soldiers keep guard at what are known as frontier posts— the frontier between the victorious and defeated armies. Other natural barriers help to seal off the German forces. A string of lakes buttons up the landward side of one zone, and the Baltic is the other barrier.

In their own zones the German soldiers live a routine military life under their own officers. From time to time British officers go into them on tours of inspection, escorted by armed guards and fighting vehicles. They inspect the German camps as much as they would inspect their own British establishments, investigating all matters which affect the well-being of the soldier. The German officers and men take great interest in these visits.

Life at the road barriers, where British soldiers keop > guard on • this strangest of frontiers, is fascinating. The British soldier has a wary attiture towards the German and is firmly resolved not to take any chances. Rumours from inside' come trickling down to the British guards: one was from a crmp for German Air Force pilots, who were saying with glee that they were to be allowed to join the R.A.F. to fight the Japanese.—B.O.^V.

RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF TRADE UNIONS

Rec. 11 a.m. LONDON, July 22. The French military, gpvernment has authorised the re-estabiishment of German trade unions in Wurttemberg, says Luxemburg radio. Reuters correspondent states that this brings the * French zone in-line with the Russian "" zone. A similar decision has not vet been made in the British and American zones. '