CZECHS NOW WORSE OFF THAN UNDER THE GERMAN OCCUPATION

Grey River Argus, 29 March 1948, Page 5

CZECHS NOW WORSE OFF THAN UNDER THE GERMAN OCCUPATION

Warning To Australian Ex-Consul-General (Rec. 5.30)’ SYDNEY, March 28 An anonymous letter from the Czech capital of Prague, warns the former Czech Acting Consul-General for Australia, Mr Karol Tokoly, that he will be arrested if he returns to Czechoslavakia. Mr Tokoly has resigned his post as a protest against the Communist coup in his home country. The letter gives a warning that twenty-five of the former colleagues of Mr Tokoly have been sent to work in coal mines and on farms; that the civil servants, are being given the option of joining the Communist Party or of resigning and now conditions in Czechoslovakia are much worse than when the country was under the German occupation. “Even if I am recalled by the Government, I will refuse to return home,” said Mr Tokoly. “I served in the Czechoslovakian army in Britain during the war, and in the Communist eyes. I have become tainted by the influence of the western world.”

Czech Minister Promises Free Elections

(Received March 28, 9.50 p.m.) PRAGUE, March 28.

The Czechoslovakian Minister of Transport, M. Alois Petr, said that Czech elections would be held on May 23. They would be constitutional, democratic, free and secret. He said that the elections would prove to the world that Czechoslovakia was being ruled constitutionally and democratically. He added that those parties forming the National Front would have their own election lists. There would be a new education Bill, which would make religious instruction in the schools compulsory.