Two weeks before Churchills message in the House of Commons. a deputation of British churchmen headed by the Anglican Archbishop of York representing the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury and the entire Anglican church. together with the Archbishop of Westminster and other Catholic bishops. appealed in person to the British Prime Minister in this matter. The churchmen pointed out the hardships of the millions of Germans who have been forcibly expelled from Poland and the German territories handed over to Poland and from the Czech Sudetenland. The British Prime Minister replied that "The problem was already engaging the anxious attention of the British Government which was doing its utmost to overcome the difficulties facing Europe in the coming winter. particularly as regards coal. food. and transport." He pointed out that "The particular problem of German refugees from Eastern Europe was not one for which the British Government was in any way responsible. and that steps had now been taken to suspend further expulsions pending further consideration of the matter of the Allied Government." In the August 13. 1945. issue of Time magazine. this mass expulsion is described as follows: In what was once Eastern Germany an anguished tide of humanity. one of the greatest mass movements of Germans in history. flowed toward the borders of the shrunken German Reich. At least 10 million hungry Germans were being uprooted from their homes in East Prussia. Pomerania.
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refugees