U.S. POLICY TO GERMANY

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24748, 13 December 1945, Page 5

U.S. POLICY TO GERMANY

OUTLINE GIVEN BY BYRNES PREVENTING DISEASE . AND UNREST - " (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 7' p.m.) WASHINGTON, Dec. 11. The United States and ■ the other Allied Powers must finance a programme of German imports for two years, said the United States Secretary of State (Mr James Byrnes), setting out the United States economic policy for Germany. This was-necessary, he said, to prevent disease and unrest in a shattered and defeated nation, though during this winter, liberated Europe must enjoy a higher priority than Germany on food and supply. United States aims were:—(1) to increase to the greatest possible extent the export of coal from Germany to the liberated areas; (2) to organise machinery this winter to carry out the reparations and disarmament programme laid down at Potsdam by the United States, Britain, and Russia; (3) to establish national German administrative agencies for finance, transport, communications, foreign trade, ana industry; and (4) to prevent mass starvation in Germany. Mr Byrnes pointed out that there were at present throughout Europe many areas where the diet was at or close to starvation levels. Mr Byrnes said he intended to renew his suggestion for a general European peace conference, which he termed essential to a speedy return of normal conditions.

Mr Byrnes cautioned reporters not to expect too great accomplishments at the Moscow talks. He emphasised that it was not a peace conference, but a meeting held in accordance with the Yalta Agreement, to exchange views. He added that such meetings were far better than correspondence, and served to keep open the-lines of communication among the Big Three.

GERMAN WAR GASES ;

EXPERIMENTS ON PRISONERS (Rec. 7 p.m.) WASHINGTON, Dec. 11. Germany developed the deadliest poison gas in the world, and tested it on concentration, camp inmates, said Colonel Bernard Bernstein, an official of the American Military Government in Germany, giving evidence .before the Senate Committee. i

"The Germans destroyed large"stocks of poison gas and also many\ plants before the Russian-occupation, but we discovered at least one of their terrible secrets which they hoped to save for the next war," he said. "Our investigation showed that an I.G. Farben official developed the deadliest gas in the world, which could penetrate any existing gasmask. Farbens originally carried out experiments on monkeys, but later used human beings. "Gases were used with the full knowledge and agreement of Farbens on whole groups in concentration camps such as Auschwitz."

CRIMES IN BERLIN

(Rec. 7- p.m.) BERLIN, Dec. 11. Three murders have-been added to the violent crime wave which the city of Berlin is" experiencing. Thieves killed a 62-year-old woman tobacconist and looted her shop. Four men who escaped in a car shot two women through the head in the Moabit district. More than 2500 persons have been arrested since January. Four two hundred and fifty persons were questioned in a recent comb-out

COLLABORATION WITH NAZIS

ALLEGATIONS AGAINST FINNISH LEADERS (Rec. 7 pjn.) HELSINKI, Dec. .11. At the trial of eight former political leaders of Finland,* the prosecution alleged that the Ryti Government either turned down or ignored a series of offers to negotiate a peace, made "by Russia through Sweden. The;offers were made in. December, 1941, January., 1942, January, 1943, August, 1943, and December, 1943. . .'.*', The prosecution produced official Russian documents to support a charge that the Finnish Government, under Ryti, planned revenge against Russia by co-operating with the Germans, at least six months before Hitler's invasion of Russia. The Germans were allowed to send a continuous flow of troops and tanks, and also aircraft, into Finland.

APPROPRIATION' FOR UNRRA

CONGRESS APPROVAL (Rec. 11.30) WASHINGTON, Dec. 12. The United States Congress has approved a 550,000,000 dollar appropriation for, XJNRRA, constituting the balance of the United States’ commitment for the first year of operations by UNRRA. . The appropriation carries ‘an amendment requesting President Truman to seek permission for American journalists to* enter countries aided byUNRRA to report how the money had been spent. BRITISH TANK PRODUCTION INQUIRY WANTED (Rec. 7 p.m.) LONDON, Dec. 11. The question of tanks and tank production during the war was raised in the House of Commons when Mr Stokes asked the Minister of War (Mr J. J. Lawson) whether he would now order a full inquiry. Mr Lawson replied that he saw no advantage in an inquiry, Mr Stokes asked whether the Minister of War was aware of two reports already made to the Government which were so bad that the Government would not dare tell the House of Commons, and that as a result of gross inefficiency, thousands of lives had been lost and hundreds of millions wasted. Mr Lawson said he had nothing to add to his answer. Mr Stokes said he would raise the matter at the earliest opportunity “in public.’'

APPEAL BY WILLIAM JOYCE CP.ec. 7 p.m.) • LONDON, Dec, Ti. During argument on behalf of William Joyce at the resumed hearing of his appeal against sentence of death in the House of Lords counsel for the defence (Mr Slade) said that there was no statute giving jurisdiction to try an alien for an offence committed abroad, even if it were an offence against British laws. Sir Hartley Shawcross, for the Crown,, said that a search for precedents exactly covering the case was singularly sterile. The whole advantage of common law was that it was capable of adaptation to new circumstances. It was one of the characteristics of the law of treason that no other branch owed so much in its development to judicial construction and development.

He asked their Lordships to say that there could have been no case in the history of the law of treason in Britain in which inducement to apply the existing law to new facts was more compelling than in this case.

General Plastiras Injured.—The former Greek Prime Minister tGeneral Plastiras) was seriously injured when his car overturned during a tour of the central* Peloponnese.—London, December 11.