-!.\ir Ministry News Service 

T0~::Q:TG_ OF R. i1, F • .AIRC~;·l IN RHOJ:)ESI.A £1)..R lvL:\R_9H..l\_L SIH ROpERW HIV~ TO Tl\X:G PART IN DISCUSSIONS NEXT ivIONTH Air Marshal 3ir Roderic Hill, K.C.B., M. C. , D.F. C., i\ir lviember for Training, is going to Southern Hhodesia early in Hay to disc\J.ss with the Southern RrOdesian Government the question of continuing arrangements for the training of R, J\ , F. aircrew in that cou.ntry. Under the war-time scheme 8, 500 British aircrew pupils were trained there. The .Air Member for T:baining, who is expected to leave this couxi.try on May 1, vvill fly to Rhodesia. in the Mitchell aircraft which he generally uses and ·;.rill pilot the machine himself. He expects to be away about three weeks. He vvill be joined in the discussions by a financial representative of tbe .Air Ministry, ·who is already in Rhodesia, and by .tlir Vice-Marshal J , '.!hitworth Jones, C.B., Director-General of Organisation at the .:Ur Ministry, who will fly to Rhodesia in another aircraft as the representative of tho ~ir Member for Supply and Organisation (;\ir 1vL\3rshal Sir !:,eslie Follinghurst, K. D.E. J C,3,, D. F. C.), 

The first sitting of the Westphelian Provincial Council at tbe Stadtballe, Munster, will take place on Tuesday. Tbe opening of a council at province level marks an important step in the cfo.1i1ocratisation of Germany, and implies a transfer of responsibility in some measure from the occupying power to the C--0rman civil administration. 
This council is at the moment, however, purely advisory: it has no executive powers, 
The .lwsistant Regional Commissioner, Brigadier Chadvv.i.ck, and staff will bo present and it is hoped that the council will be encournged in its work by the presence in strength at the inaugural meeting of Military and Control Commission officers" 'l'he progrnmme vv.i.11 include the playing of Bectbovcm' s 11El08nor0" overture by the Stadt orchestra, !.'l reading from Schiller, "'!'he LDWS of I,ycurgus and Solon", and spcocbcs by Brig. Ch~dwick rmd. the Oberpr,,.,osidunt: . Proccadings will conclude with th0 vrestphalian cinthem, 


No.3 
GRAIN COLLECTING COHHITTEES FIND NO HOi1RDI NG IN 
BRITISH ZONE OF 'GERJl:I.1\NY 

" 11.rmed wi th2uthority to seize all grain after ensuring that seeding reouirements and minimum mointenDce rations for dairy cattle is al1 that is left in stockyo.rds, borns and stores, specially forwed Military Government Grain Collecting Committees have 
within the last month visit~d every farm and the premises of every horse 3nd cattle dealer throughout the British Zone in an effort to bolster up the meagre food rations. It was hoped that the search would reveal surplus stocks which -would help to 
tirw the population over until the next hary-est~ ~7hat it did reveal, was that estimates 
of grain still lying on farms were unfortunately so accurate that, generally speaking, tb.e German farmer hnd been honest in his dealing vvi th the British Military. Government nnd had not hoarded grain 1 that there are now no further stocks of indigenous grain in 
the Zor.e 1 and thet after April all grain_consune d must come from impolits. Prior to the Committee being formed all farmers ~~re under an obligation to deliver all bread grain to the mills and a quota of their fodder grain. The balance they were allowed to re ta in for live stock. \'{hen the rations were out at the beginning of March, the Gr8in Collecting Committees we:ce formed with orders to see that all bread grain W8S delivered to millers within seven days. Hundreds of m.ommitt8es, oonsiting of farmers ' and consumers' representntives 
were formed, each group of committees working under the direct supervision of a British officer. In Schlewsig-Holstein alone 1 ,933 committees were formed. The 
committees had complete powers to search and requisition. In only a few cases out of the thousands cf farms visited were farmers found to be guilty of hoarding and prosecutions against them are proceeding. 
other results of the search for grain were disappionting, Not only was no grain, over and above the quota found, but the quota was not even reached. The 
position now is that there is no grain left on the farms. According to an officer of Military Government the bottom of the grain barrel has been scraped clean and by the end of this month the German in the British Zone will be entirely dependent on imports for their bread until the next harvest. 
The precise composition of the committees is one farmers' re~sentative in 
the local comMunity, one farmer, and one consumers1 representBtive. 
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I 
CONTROL cm~ITSSION FOR GEruvrJJ.NY (British Element) 


DE,..TH SENTENCE IN SHOOTING C~1SES IJ\T GEffi1L:,NY
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The Commnnder-in-Chief hfls confirmed. do8th sentences pflss0d in throe shooting 
Cf\SOS in the British Zone of Germany. 
The f:lrst sentence was pGssed by the Genernl lviilit8ry Court of Dusselforf on Ivli.ecsislaw Bar.8n, 2 34 year old Pole_, tried on two ckirges of unlawful use of fire8r ms and four charges of robbery. BGran -.-.ms 8 member o_f 21 g2ng who on vorious dr.-ites in July, ~~ugust, September and October of bst year, raided housBs occui,ied ·a~: G-ermons .smd committed 3rmod robberies, 
On the last two roids there vras inC.iscrir,1inntc shooting in ~r..bich the accused took part, ii mon and a woman were vroundeo. en tbe lnst occasion fr6m shots fired through a door in what w8S descri"bed as ' unprovoked, reckless and wanton1 shooting. 
That there wos no loss of life. was ._pu.rely fortuitous. nnd there was med~cal evidence to show that only ooimmcdinto oponition saved the life of tho m.~m inj ured on the last raid, ~·, bullet entered his spleen Gnd ho would have certainly died if it b<1a not been removed )_n-mediatcly. 
il long series of c:rmed robbories occurod in the f\Utumn of 191+5 in the Solingen nreo . Robberies took place on an 8VOrnge throo times 8 week, In about half the r<\ids J':'iro­arms were used. In roughly one r3id in fivt:'. someone was wounded, and during tbe sorios 
of r.<:ids four people were killed. 
The President of the cour t , in a sep8rate report on C8Ses tried in his district, stc.ites that in the early days pistols vrore usutilly carried but rc:irely fired, Moro recently there has beens far groatnr rocidincss to shoot ond it appe8rs thAt it is no longer a sport but a business run by profossiOnEil criminnls. He also' st8tos thr;it Polos, as opposed to Germans, do not seem tho least impressed by long s~ntences, They Aro 
(111i:te sure that they will escape or be roleased ofter only a short sentence. 5-ye3_r-old ~!_i_p_ !~_i].1~£ 
The second sentence, also pnssed by the Dussoldorf Military '6ourt was on Jrm Kzicizek, a 22-year-old Pole, found guilty on throe charges, involving unlawful possess­ion of firearms, unau.tbo:c:Lsed use of fire8rms and attempted plu~~.der. 
Six Poles broke into 8 farmhouse 3t ,_,bout uidnight on November 27 lest and the occused, carrying a revolver and acrnmp:iniod by t1:ro cor:irades, entered the room where the farmer, named Lutzebkirchen, was in bed with his wife end 5-year-old twin sons. 
a farm worker had given the alarm b y pressing o bell 1vhich rang in 3 neighbouring farm 
and at about the same time as the accused c::ntered the f3rmer 1 s bedroom with his compan:­ions the villages siren sounded, Shooting started immediately, Lutzebkirchen, the 
twin sons and another man living on the farm were killed and Frau Lutzebkirchen was ·wounded. The accused was recognised as the man who shot the farmer nnd Korl, one of 
the twins. 
Raiders Shot Priest 
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·Tho third sentence to be confirmed i·ms passed by thG General Military Court of Iserlohn on Stanislais C7.1.:1stowski, a 28-year-old Pole, accused of using firearms on throe sepnra te occnsions, on each of ·which 8 f er son was killed. He was a member of a gang of five Poles \7ho a:;_~ranged to raid a mill at Oelinghausen, 
~ 
On the night of October 23/22+ the gong went t o tho mill and ,slnughtered a cow on a 
field nearby. They were interru~ted by o passer-by on a bicycle. They stopped him 
and found that he was a priest whc knew one of t'.-e r::i·.i.ders 8nd addressed hiril by name. 
/The accused 
·,. 

-2 ­The accused held the priest, and the raider who had been recognised said he must be shot becauE\e he would betray them, Two of the raiders, neither of them the accused, then shot the priest dead. One of them then took the priest's. watch and bicycle and the body was subsequently hidden in a nearby woO!i& 
The gang then proceeded to the mill which they looted. They drove the two :inhabitants, a man and a woman; into the cellar , where both were shot dead, the accused being one of the two raiders who shot the WoLmn. 
The aicused was also dharged with having escaped from prison. He escoped {X'om custody by getting possession of a hamrnet by o trick and brutally assaulting a waruer· with it until he was unconscious. He then stole the warder 1 s prison keys 
I 
and pistol. 
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CONTROL CON:iiISSION FOR GERMANY (British Element)