THE CHINA MAIL, DECEMBER 12, 1988
GERMANS PRACTICALLY SWEEP THE FIELD IN MEMEL DIET ELECTIONS
Memel, To-day. Although the official results of yesterday's elections for the autonomous Diet of Memel will not be known till next week-end, German Party head- quarters stated last evening that they believed they had secured 26 out of 29 seats. Particular interest attaches to the elections owing to the categorical declaration that the Ger- mans intend, early in the new year, to demand annexation of the district to the Reich.
Yesterday 75,000 voters partici-1 pated at 220 polling booths, which were open from 8 a.m. to 8 at night: No alcohol was sold till the booths closed.
cross
Each voter was required to put a beside twentynine names.. Each of the five parties--one Unit- ed German and four Lithuanian- has twentynine candidates.
Each party presented the elec- tors with a booklet giving details of their candidates, one candidate to a page.
Voters could put the whole book- let in the ballot box or make a list by selecting individual candidates. NO INCIDENTS
The German Party secured 24 seats in the 1985 elections, when the Germans were not permitted to circulate electioneering propagan- da.
REICH GIVES A CUE
Berlin, To-day. "Memel Germans may rest as- sured that their elections will be watched with sympathy by the Reich," says the "Berliner Ta- `geblatt."
The paper adds: “By the way she allows Memel Germans to ex- ercise their rights (after the elec- tions) will Lithuania determine the future of her relations with -
the Reich."---Reuter.
signs that the Memel Nazis, if their election hopes are fulfilled, intend to petition the Reich Government No incidents were reported dur-for formal recognition of the ter- ing the polling yesterday.
ritory as German.
AUSTRIAN TACTICS The Nazi leader, Herr Neumann;
Herein they would be following appealed for discipline and order among his followers in an election closely the methods adopted in eve speech at Heydekurg, six miles Austria in March. from the German frontier.
All over Memelland, uniformed Neumann Guards, whose uniform, but for the colour and absence of swastika, are the same as the Nazi! uniform of the Reich Storm Troop ers, patrolled.
At the request of the Memel Government, German troops might then, it is feared, cross the border from East Prussia.
Neither Lithuania nor Poland could oppose by force a German oc- cupation.
Bearing in mind Czecho-Slova- kia's fate, Lithuania might be will- ing to agree to territorial change in return, for concessions for trade through Mẹmel.
VOTING BRISK Voting was brisk in. Memel, its suburbs and outlying villages, where by midday about half the population had gone to the polls.
There might thus be negotiated a Badges distributed to those who had voted represented Borussia, the revision of the 1924 Memel Conven- tion to which the guarantors, Bri- Britannia of Memel Germans.
When the polls were closed, ittain, France, Italy and Japan, was estimated by the German Par-would be asked to agree.-Reuter. ty that 95 per cent. of the elector-
ate had voted, which compares with
91.3 in 1935.--Reuter.
LONDON WATCHING
JAPANESE
London, To-day. CLAIMS IN
The Memel elections are being watched with close attention in London, says the diplomatic cor- respondent of the "Sunday Times."
He adds that if the Nazis succeed in obtaining an overwhelming ma- jority, of which there is every, in-
HOPEI FIGHTING
Tokyo, To-day.
Japanese operations against the
dication, the possibility of the Chinese remnants in Hopei Province
Memel territory being incorporated are reported to be progressing
in the Reich before Christmas Is by no means to be excluded.
The correspondent says there are
'NIKS
› Guaranteed Gure
For Hong Kong Epot,
well.
It is claimed that up. to Dec. 9, 1,300 Chinese guerillas had been killed in the course of twenty- eight engagements.
It is declared that the Chinese are retreating southward from the central part of the province, while Chinese war refugees in Japanese occupied areas are re- turning to their homes in in- creasing numbers. ?
Field despatches state that heavy losses were inflicted when warplanes bombed concentrations Lof Chinese troops in Hutan Pro- ...vince. Reuter
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