IRON HEEL ON NECKS OF CZECHS

Grey River Argus, 4 June 1948, Page 5

IRON HEEL ON NECKS OF CZECHS

Mass Trials to Follow Elections

SOCIALIST PARTY FACING LIQUIDATION

LONDON, June 2. The latest to join the ranks of Czech exiles abroad is Dr Blaho, formerly Minister for Posts and Telegraphs in the Slovak Provincial Government.

Following the recent elections, the Czech Government at present noius prisoner Dr Peter Zenkl, the former Vice-Premier and leader ot ur joenes Party, and also Dr Prokop Drtina, former Minister of Justice in the socialist Government. The Manchester Guardian correspondent in Prague states: The latest figures of the election in Czechoslovakia show that ten point seven per cent, of the valid votes were only : blank ballots cast against the Government. The number of blank ballots was 770,701 in a total electorate oi 8,055,100, of whom 7,199,846 went to the polls. No official figures have been given showing the number who abstained from voting. The Manchester Guardian correspondent says:—Although the Government has claimed a conclusive victory, the number of opposition votes registered was remarkable, in view of the fact that the opposition was unorganised and that there was no secret ballot. The highest proportion of opposition votes was cast in Slovakia, which is traditionally a stronghold of Roman Catholicism and anti-Com-munism.

The Daily Mail’s correspondent in Prague states: The next move of the Czech Government will be to prepare for a mass trial of anti-Communist politicians, including members of Dr Benes’ Socialist Party. The trial is expected to be on the same lines as those which followed the Communist assumption of power in Bulgaria and Rumania. Many of the defendants will be tried in their absence, as they have escaped from Czechoslovakia. The correspondent at Prague of the London Daily Express says: The National Front or the Government’s central election committee will check the voting figures this week and will declare 260 deputies elected. The remaining 40 in a House of 300 will be selected later from among the run-ners-up. ■ QUEER COUNTING. The Daily Express correspondent adds: A number of the voters slipped pictures of General Eisenhower and Mr Churchill into the ballot box, and others did the same with photographs of Dr Benes. The Government ruled that pictures of General Eisenhower and Mr Churchill should be treated as invalid votes, but that pictures of Dr Benes should count as votes for the Government.

NO RISK OF REARMAMENT IN GERMANY

Six-Power Plan LONDON, June 2. Reuter’s diplomatic correspondent understands that the Six-Power London Conference is issuing a communique to-night recommending the military occupation of the Ruhr and the Rhineland after the full-scale occupation of Germany ends. A seven-Power organisation (including German representatives) will be established to supervise output and distribution.

It is felt that this will go some way to meet the French insistence on adequate measures to prevent future German aggression.

Another recommendation is the establishment of a German Constituent Assembly by September 1 to prepare a constitution as a basis for a Western German Government, operating with limited powers, early in 1949.

It is understood the new international control authority for the Ruhl' will have fifteen members—Britain, France, America and. the Benelux countries three each and the Western occupation zones one each. A German Chamber of Commerce for Australia and New Zealand has been established at Cologne. The founder is Mr W. J. Garewar, a German, who., spent the war years in Australia without being interned.

Soviet Denial at Intention to Annex Eastern Germany

To Counter Western Powers’ Plans

(Rec. 10.50). LONDON, June 3. According to the Soviet Information Bureau, Marshal Sokolovsky, Soviet Military Governor of the zone of Germany which is being occupied by Russia, told members of the Christian Democratic Union in this zone that Russia has no intention of severing the Soviet zone from the rest of Germany, or of incorporating it into the Soviet Union in any form. The Bureau said Marshal Sokolovsky also gave an assurance that the Soviet Union would support all German aspirations towards unification of Germany. He said: “Germany’s unity requires the formation of one single all-German democratic government”. He also said that a just peace “could be made only with a united Germany”. Marshal Sokolovsky assured the Christian Democrats that no new expropriations of land or of property would take place in the Soviet zone of Germany. The British United Press correspondent in Berlin says: Marshal Sokolovsky’s statement was made in the Soviet zone a week ago, on May 27, but it was released by the ■ Bureau only last night. Probably it was released in answer to the Six Power Agreement dealing with the future of ■the Ruhr and of the Rhineland after the general occupation of Germany ends. TT • The Christian Democratic-Union is the strongest non-Communist political party in the Soviet zone.