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Show Former Teacher Writes Letter From Germany EDITOR'S NOTE: The following interesting letter arrived this week from a former for-mer resident of this city and a Herald reader. He gives his opinion opin-ion on various conditions as they exist in Europe which we believe townspeople will enjoy reading. The letter states: Passau, Germany, May 29, 1916. j Dear Mr. Conover, j "Many times during the past year I nave thought of writing to you as I thought you might he interested in some of the impressions which one gets from being close to things $that are happening. I suppose it is the fact that spring is here and I realize that it is now a year since I closed up shop in Spring-; Spring-; ville and set out for parts unknown j which makes me recall some of the places and people who I knew at that time. At any rate I in-end in-end to give to you a few impres-(Continued impres-(Continued on Page Eight) Out of 98 8th-grade boys in the Fayette Co., Ohio school system sys-tem who voted recently on their future, 59 said they wanted to be farmers. Average hourly earnings in cotton cot-ton manufacturing boomed more than 88 percent from August, '39, to end of 1945. Former Teacher Writes Letter From Germany (Continued from page one) sions which I have received in my year here. "One of the questions which J. hear most often from home is in connection with the actual food situation here. I can say that for this part of Germany I think that it is bad but as yet is not nearly as bad as in the countries which the German occupied. Just this I week the bread ration has been cut one-third and" the allowed ration ra-tion for the no-mal consumer is row at 1170 calories. This ration is however theoretical as most of the German population have connections con-nections with the farmers which "for a consideration" brings them additional quantities of milk, butter, but-ter, eggs and fresh vegetables. When one walks the streets he does not get the impression that the people are too poorly fed and there is certainly no mass starvation starva-tion in this area. "The attempt of the local Military Mili-tary Government officials to stamp out the black market in food runs into some very interesting though highly annoying situations. Along with the German population is a large population of foreigners. These are people who were brought into Germany; as slave laborers, as prisoners of war, or who were induced to come to Germany Ger-many toy high wages and a better standard of living than they could have had in their German occupied occu-pied homelands. This group also includes large numbers of Hungarians Hun-garians who were in the army, and their families. The German police are used as the instrument of Military Government to stamp out black markets. These police then spend a large part of their time in trying to find violators among the foreign group while at the same time they overlook the German violators. "When a foreigner is once apprehended ap-prehended as a black marketeer he is taken to Military courts as the German courts have no jurisdiction juris-diction except in specially approved ap-proved cases. The Military courts in their attempt to sta?np out the illicit trading place extreme ex-treme penalties upon the violators. violat-ors. At the same time a" German arrested on a similar charge is brought before a German civil court where the charge is minimized mini-mized and the consequent sentence If the situation permits I will ;;: haps be seeing you in a months. "Sincerely, Leon A. Westover." -small in comparison to that placed on the foreigner. "It all adds up to the fact that the Germans find no further use for the foreigners who were brought to the country to help them win the war and they are now making it as miserable as possible for them to live, hoping to force them out of their country. coun-try. This situation is, however, alleviated for those United Nations Na-tions Displaced persons who are living in UNRRA operated centers. cen-ters. This group gets an average of 2300 calories of food, shelter and clothing furnished for them. "Many thousand allied displaced displac-ed persons have been helped back to their homes in the- last year but there are still about 400 thousand in the U. S. Zone of Germany. Most of these individuals do not wish to return to their homes because be-cause of Russian occupation or influence. In a recent poll conducted con-ducted in this area only 22 persons per-sons of a population of 2600 stated stat-ed that they desired 'to return to their homes. It is interesting to note that neither do they desire to remain in Germany. When asked where they wish to go they answer: Australia, Brazil, USA, Canada, Alaska, Argentina, or most any other place outside of Europee. It is my feeling that something should be done to help these people peo-ple get settled in a country in which they can obtain citizenship. "The U. S. has made a token move in this directio but is, I feel, highly unsatisfactory. Priority is being given under a Presidential order to Displaced Persons on the pre-war immigration quota basii The result is that of the quota 39,000 who will be allowed to enter en-ter the U. S. this year 27,000 are Germans and Austrians. As the only displaced persons of German nationality are Jews it means that we are discriminating in favor of that group. While I do not believe in discrimination against the Jews, neither do I believe in discrimination discrimina-tion in their favor. I can name several other groups who I think are just as deserving but who n being given no consideration under un-der the present laws. I do not feel that the Jews are going to make better Americans than some of those other groups. "The work here has boon fascinating fas-cinating but I have been away for about long enough. I will probably be back home by the first of September. Sep-tember. I have been following the Herald reports mid editorials on the school situation there and bave enjoyed them a lot. I hope J that you are gaining your point. |