Reports that the Lithuanian Government was ordering refugees from Poland to return to territories occupied by the Germans and the Russians were denied here today by the Lithuanian Legation.
The Lithuanian Government, it was stated, had approached both the Russian and German governments, asking them to permit interned refugees to go back on the express condition that the refugee himself wishes to return to Polish territory and that nobody was to be returned against his will.
It was stated categorically that the question of return to occupied territories was a matter entirely subject to the free will and choice of the individual and that no one would be returned against his desire. It is understood that a number of Polish soldiers, mostly peasants, asked to be sent back to their former homes.
There have been some cases of deportation of Jewish refugees who entered the country illegally, it was learned. These deportations were ordered, the Lithuanian authorities asserted, in order to prevent a mass influx of refugees entering the country illegally.
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