STEP TOWARD PEACE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 287, 21 September 1950, Page 5

STEP TOWARD PEACE

DECISIONS IN NEW YORK WEST GERMAN VIEWS <N.Z.P.A.—Copyright) (Rec. 10.10 a.m.) LONDON, Sept. 20. The West German Government in Bonn to-day formally hailed the decisions of the Foreign Ministers as “an extraordinary step toward peace.” ~ A Government ' statement said the Government saw in the decision “a further step for Germany on the road from an occupied country toward an independent free nation.” At the same time the Government expressed satisfaction over the announced increase in occupation troops in Western Germany and Berlin.

Western Germany’s anti-Communist newspapers also hailed the Foreign Ministers’ decisions, with special emphasis on the security guarantee against aggression. Referring to the Ministers’ announcement that any attack against Western Germany would be considered an attack on the Western Powers, the Frankfurt newspaper “Muenchner Merkur” said: “This means that the frontiers of the United States, Britain, and France have been moved to the Elbe and even to the Spree.” The “Offenback Post” said: “The New York decisions practically mean the inclusion of Western Germany into the Atlantic Pact and, at the same time, give a guarantee of security against Soviet threat.” Moscow papers to-day said that the mobile police force favoured by the Foreign Ministers of Britain, the United States and France would “undoubtedly be the nucleus of a German army.” „ A Tass dispatch, published m all newspapers, questioned the motives of the West. It said the Ministers “clearly indicated their desire to dedicate the human and industrial resources of Western Germany for war preparation?.”