DENAZIFICATION PROGRAMME

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25134, 15 March 1947, Page 9

DENAZIFICATION PROGRAMME

Marshall Moves For Co-operation

CONFERENCE IN MOSCOW (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 7 p.m.) MOSCOW, March 13. General Marshall proposed fourPower co-operation on denazification after the Foreign Ministers had reviewed a report by the Russian representative on the Allied Control Council. The report criticised the progress of denazification in the British zone. The report claimed that the British system of employing Germans on denazification tribunals was not covered by any Four-Power agreement, that the trails were not satisfactory, and - that Britain, contrary to Allied policy, had granted a general amnesty to German youth. The report generally accused Britain of failing in ‘diligence. Mr Bevin presided at the session. General Marshall gave a detailed report on denazification in the American zope, and offered the Ministers a draft resolution proposing that the Allied Control Council should publish a unified law for the denazification of the whole of Germany. Mr Bidault (France) said it could not yet be said that the Hitlerite spirit had disappeared from Germany. Democratisation would be a very lengthy and difficult matter. France believed that there was need for decartelisation and agrarian reform, and that more opportunities should be given antiFascist political parties and trade unions in the states and provinces. Mr Bidault favoured General Marshall’s suggestions that the denazify cation laws should be uniform, but he opposed the idea that uniformity should come from the Control Council. Nazis in Soviet Zone

General Marshall, discussing Russian charges about denazification in the west, said he had been disturbed by frequent reports from the Russian zone that former active Nazis could have themselves cleared if they joined the Socialist Unity Party. Mr Molotov said he knew of no Nazis being allowed to join the Socialist Unity Party. Mr Bevin said that Britain had a list of 40 high Nazis holding important positions in the Russian zone. Mr Molotov replied that Nazis were working throughout the three western zones in judicial positions. He named five persons, whom he said were in this category. Mr Bevin read only five names in order to show the Allied unity. Mr Molotov said that 35 per cent, of the judiciary in the American zone were Nazis, 43 per cent, in the British zone, and 50 per cent, in the French

zone. He proposed that the Foreign Ministers should direct the Control Council to grant democratic German political parties and trade unions the right to organise nationally. He added that he thought General Marshall’s proposal for a uniform denazification law acceptable, but he wanted time to think about it. He also recommended proportional representation for all German elections. Mr Bevin replied that he felt that “the list system” had been one of the biggest factors in Hitler’s rise to power He did not want anything which would encourage any .one small party to dominate others and bring back totalitarianism. a Mr Bevin produced his list of former Nazis working in the Russian zone with some asperity. The list included a man named Augustin, described as the designer of the Tiger tank, npw chief of an industrial department under the Russians. Mr Bevin said the procedure of accusation and counter-accusation was unhelpful and unjustified. The meeting adjourned with Mr Bevin promising to study General Marshall’s proposal. The British United Press correspondent names the following from Mr Bevin’s list: Dr. Freidrich Hasse, alleged to be a former S.A. Stormfuhrer, who is now, according to Mr Bevin, in the Russian Fuel Ministry at Leipzig: Dr. Kohe, described as a former Nazi economics expert, now chief of a Russian technical commission in a factory; Franze Fischer, a Nazi party member since 1933, who is said to have accepted a 15-year contract with the Russians and to have gone to Moscow as an electrical engineer. Proposed Talks on China Reuter’s correspondent in Moscow says Mr Molotov, according to reliable reports, sent a note to Mr Bevin and General Marshall proposing early private three-Power talks on China outside the framework of the Council of Foreign Ministers. This news is not officially confirmed. It is reported that Mr Molotov agreed that China should have a representative at the discussions. The Chinese Embassy in Moscow has received no information about the report that China will be invited to send a representative to a private meeting of the Big Three. It is reliably reported that General Marshall is likely to agree to Mr Molotov’s proposal provided the Chinese are represented, but will first ask him to make it more explicit. Mr Vyshinsky, at to-day’s meeting of the Foreign Ministers’ deputies, re-, newed Russia’s plea that Albania should be permitted to participate in drafting the German treaty. Mr Vyshinsky argued that the Italian treaty recognised Albania’s status as an “allied and associated Power” by granting her reparations, even though the amount granted was “nothing but a sixpence to keep for a rainy day.” (Albania’s reparations from Italy were £1,250,000.)

France supported Russia, but Britain and the United States opposed the proposal.