Britain Must Not Be Taken In By German Propaganda Or Prejudice

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 15135, 18 November 1949, Page 3

Britain Must Not Be Taken In By German Propaganda Or Prejudice

Dismantling Ruhr Plants

FUTURE SECURITY MUST NOT BE JEOPARDISED

(Received 8.10 a.m.) London, November 17. The British Foreign Secretary (Mr Bevin) spoke of the problem of Fermany in his speech which opened the foreign affairs debate in the House of Commons this afternoon. He said the directive which the Foreign Ministers had agreed on in Paris would enable the Allied High Commissioners to have discussions with the Federal Government over a very wide field. Subject to agreement on other points, the Foreign Ministers had contemplated some modification of the dismantling programme but he himself had net been much impressed with the case which had been made out on purely economic grounds.

As far as steel was concerned, the Germans were not even operating the amount they were already allowed, and yet they asked, on psychological grounds, for still greater capacity. Mr Bevin asked the House not to be taken in by propaganda or prejudice. In no circumstance would the Government give way on the dismantling of Ruhr plants. They wanted the economy of Germany to play a proper part in an unified Europe. But the security side must he properly looked after, he said.

The Foreign Secretary also told the House of the consultations on the question of admitting Germany to the Council of Europe as an associate member. He rejected the idea of a special meeting of the Assembly. He had no doubt that the Ministers would have another opportunity of arriving at a decision to admit Germany. When he referred to Western Union defence, Mr Bevin said he would readily give an assurance to the French that Britain would do nothing to weaken the organisation created under the Brussels Treaty. "Grotesque Mismanagement"

German Guarantees Offered

Chancellor Meets High

Commissioners

For the Opposition, Mr Churchill said the Conservatives, for the past two years, had been saying that belated dismantling was uny/ise, but Mr Bevin had perservered with it and by a grotesque piece of mismanagement had supported free elections in Western Germany at the same time.

This had allowed the anti-demo-cratic forces there to give full vent to their passions. On the question of European unity, Mr Churchill said the Foreign Secretary had been forced by public opinion and his own party to make great concessions to the idea, but he

(Rec. 8.30 a.m.) London. Nov. 17.

had done so belatedly and grudgingly. At Strasbourg, the British Socialist Ministers had thrown away the leadership of social democracy in Europe. He urged that the Government should lose no time in seeing that the German Federal Republic was admitted to associate membership of the Council of Europe. Mr Churchill criticised the Government's support to the election of Czechoslovakia to the Security Council. That country, he said, was a Soviet prison trap and none of the present representatives had any right to speak in the name of the Czechoslovak people.

The three Allied High Commissions in Western Germany today discussed with the Federal German Chancellor (Herr Adenauer) the ouestion of broadening the powers of the Federal Government in return for German guarantees of security.

A correspondent in Bonn says a statement on the negotiations may be made in a few days time, although it is expected that no final decision will be taken until after the French National Assembly meets next Tuesday to discuss the whole question of France's policy towards Germany. Herr Adenauer was today accompanied by his Finance Minister who conferred with Allied financial and economic' experts.