collecting taxes and overseeing the harvest, and was therefore unpopular, particularly with the rural population. German concerns about the reliability of the gendarmerie meant that it was never adequately armed or equipped for its tasks. The makeup of the puppet administration, with representation from a number of different political parties, meant that the Germans had no concerns about it developing a unified front that might hamper German efforts to pacify the territory and exploit it economically. Its very limited powers were further eroded by constant German interference in its operations, and the requirement that all laws drafted by the commissioners could only be implemented after their approval by the Germans. The overall German approach to Aćimović and his administration was uneven, as Turner and the plenipotentiary of the Foreign Office, Felix Benzler, both pushed for co-operation and accommodation with Aćimović, while Förster and Fuchs considered the puppet government to be a mere supplement to the German military administration that included a police function. When Aćimović requested the release of Serb POWs, arguing that the camps could become hotbeds of nationalist and communist agitation, and that the men were needed as labourers, Förster flatly refused and deported them to Germany. In mid-May, Aćimović's administration issued a declaration to the effect that the Serbian people wanted "sincere and loyal cooperation with their great neighbour, the German people". Most of the local administrators in the counties and districts remained in place, and the German military administration placed its own administrators at each level to supervise the local authorities. The boundaries of the occupied territory were settled on 21 May, with of land and 3.81 million inhabitants, including between 50 and 60 per cent of Yugoslav Serbs. Soon after the Aćimović government was appointed, refugees escaping persecution in the neighbouring Independent State of Croatia (NDH), and others fleeing Bulgarian-annexed Macedonia, Albanian-annexed western Macedonia and Kosovo, and Hungarian-occupied Bačka and Baranja began to flood into the territory. Occupation troops Förster was subsequently transferred, and on 2 June was succeeded by Ludwig von Schröder, another Luftwaffe officer. On 9 June, the commander of the German 12th Army, Wilhelm List, was appointed as the Wehrmacht Commander-in-Chief Southeast Europe, with Schröder reporting directly to him. From his headquarters in Belgrade, Schröder directly controlled four poorly-equipped local defence () battalions, consisting of older men. These occupation forces were supplemented by a range of force elements, including the 64th Reserve