1.
GV Traffic near Weneslaus Square
0.06

2.
GV Shoppers around stores
0.11

3.
MV Child with pigeons
0.14

4.
GV Market stall
0.21

5.
GV People purchasing Christmas trees
0.24

6.
GV & MV Various market stalls around Wenceslaus Square (3 shots)
0.34

7.
GVs, SVs & MVS.. Carp being netted, weighed and sold (4 shots)
0.48

8.
MV People looking in store windows (4 shots)
1.01

9.
GV TILT down to entrance of store
1.07

10.
GV INT.. People in store (2 shots)
1.20

11.
CU Dolls and Christmas decorations and toys (5 shots)
1.31

12.
GV INT..Store
1.34



Initials AH/DW/ES AH/DW/ES.15.55



Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: While towns in neighbouring Poland are recovering from the recent unrest, across the border in Prague -- the scene of violent protest only eighteen months ago -- Czechoslovakians seem to be enjoying a peaceful and prosperous Christmas.

At the famous Wenceslaus Square, stalls are selling wide range of consumer good and food -- including live carp, a traditional Christmas dish in Czechoslovakia.

The brightly lit stores in the shopping centre are packed with goods, and there appears to be no lack of customers to buy them.

But though some of Prague's larger stores have Christmas decorations that would rival those in Western capitals, the country as a whole is continuing to move further away from the so-called Westernisation that accompanied the liberal reforms of 1968.

Over the weekend, the Federal Assembly, meeting in Prague, voted to bring the fuel, metal, engineering, transport and communications industries back under Federal control.

In addition, capital investments are to be coordinated and controlled by the Federal Government in an effort to tackle the chronic problem of unfinished capital construction. In the past, capital investment has been in the hands of the national governments of Slovakia, Bochemia and Moravia.