DISCUSSIONS ON PEACE TREATIES

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5310, 24 January 1947, Page 5

DISCUSSIONS ON PEACE TREATIES

( Press Assn —

YUGOSLAV CLAIMS challenge is tabled by great britain

-Rec. 9.30 p.m.)

LONDON, Jan. 23. Lord Hood (Britain), at the Foreign Ministers' Deputies meeting chailenged one of the grounds upon which Yugoslavia is claiming the union of Slovene Carinthia and the Slovene areas of Styria and Yugoslavia. He said that Dr. Yilfan (Yugoslavia) had estimated the size of the Slovene minority in Austria on the basis of a census taken in 1846, which; estimated that there was between 120,000 and 140,000 Sloyenes in Styria and Carinthia. Records more than 100 years old could not be a basis for any future settlement. He suggested that the census taken in 1910 should be used. Dr. Yilfan refused to admit the later census was preferable because the intensive progress of Germanisation had afi'ected its reliability. Dr. Vilfan claimed that the Paris Reparations "Conference in 1945 had failed to take into 'acocunt ' Austria's responsibility fo-r German war damage to Yugoslavia, which in the north Slovene areas annexed to Austrian Styria and Carinthia, amounted to approximately £132,000,000. These losses were presented as a basis on whdch V,he AujB^rian reparation payments should be assessed. Austria became a component of the Nazi war machine as a result. of her political traditions and throughout the war had remamed faithful to her age-long role in the vanguard of German Imperialism. Di. Vilfan claimed that Austrian Denazification had hardly begun and that the creation of any armed forces and para-military organisations there, must lead to serious consequences. „ Dr. Vilfan, sunporting the claim for the incorpcration of the Carinthian and Styrian Slovenes, said the decision of the 1919 Conference, that ihe two Provinces should be left wholly to Austria inflicted on Yugoslavia an injustice, which foreshadowed Nazism in Austria. Dr. Vilfan agreed, following Lord Hood's objection, to present a further memoranda d ealing with the ceifsus questions.

Basis of Greece's Claims The Greek Ambassador to London, 51. Thanassis Aghnides, revealed Greece's claims against Germany, • Wrich would be submitted to the Foreign Ministers' Deputies. Greece claims that Germany's liability for damage sustained to Greece during the occupation should be fixed at the highest possible level. Greece wants reparations to include items from current production so that Greece can secure 500,000 tons of coal annually. The claims also state that Greece should be permitted to employ specialised German technical personnel for specific tasks; that Germany should bear expense, necessary repairs and additimis to industrial installations handed over as reperations: and that all Greece's claims should be met within the shortest possible time. Greece suggests that reparations should include a share of German property in Italv and Austria and also in countries which, although they formally entered the war, have not, themselves, substantial claims against Germany, such as Turkey and lArgentina.