FIVE MILLION POLES CROSS THE NEISSE

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5309, 23 January 1947, Page 3

FIVE MILLION POLES CROSS THE NEISSE

ONE OF GREATEST MIGRATIONS IN HISTORY. WARSAW. Five million Poies have now gone to the Oder-Ne'isse territories tvansferred from Germany by the Postdam agreement, many of them to settle on lands formerly owned by the I'russian Junkers. Under Polish agrarian reform, these Junker estates were divided uj) into small peasanr lioldings. Of the three miliion acres owned by the Jcrker landiords in ^his territory, 630,000 acres have already been di'uded up and settled by Poies. Figures given by tbe Polish ViceMinisters for the Regained Teritory, M. Wolski and M. W. Czajkowski, show that Poies are rapidly replacing Germans in one of the greatest population transfers. of history. In Fehruary, 1948, there were five million inhabitants in this territory transferred to Poland from Germany. Of these five million, 41 per cert. wero still Germans. About 1,500,000 Germa.is have been returned to Germany. There. are still fiam three-quarters to a million unwanted Germans t(j be returned. The Vice-Ministers said that the Government would not monopolise industry in the new territory, but leave much of it to private enterprise. Exsoldiers, resistance fighters an.d wai* invalids would be given priority in acquii'ing property.