RECOVERY IN GERMANY

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25248, 29 July 1947, Page 7

RECOVERY IN GERMANY

FRENCH ATTITUDE AFFIRMED

BRITISH DELEGATION VISITS RUHR (Rec. 10 p.m.) LONDON. July 28. The Paris correspondent of "The Times’’ says that the French National Assembly, at the end of a foreign affairs debate, adopted by 421 votes to six a motion which approved the Government’s unchanged policy on Germany and the Saar, and warmly welcomed the Marshall offer which, it was hoped, would help to reconstruct Europe without creating two hostile blocs. The Communists voted for the part of the motion relating to Germany and abstained from voting on the motion as a whole. The Foreign Minister (Mr Bidault), detailing France’s attitude to Germany, said: “France is not systematically hostile to a rise in German production, but we want the level fixed by agreement with countries who have had to suffer from German industrial prosperity.” Tlie Moscow radio yesterday quoted a “Pravda” article claiming that official United States documenta showed that a liberal flow of American credits would begin soon to ensure the revival of the Ruhr, and that America planned a special British-American body, under United States chairmanship. to run German industry during the next five years. “The United States has presented Britain and France with an ultimatum either to accept the American plan or relinquish hope of financial aid,” the article said. “Plants which meet the requirements of the Ruhr mining industry will not be dismantled for reparations,” said a member of the British delegation which has arrived to attend a conference on the future of the Ruhr. Reporting this, the Berlin correspondent of “The Times” says that the Ruhr mines before the war needed 800,000 tons of steeL Their present allocation is 300,000 tons. The correspondent adds: “The statement on dismantling is likely to have a steadying effect on the Ruhr miners, particularly as it coincides with an an-

nouncement of new benefits for increased production. Every underground worker in a hard coal mine which within the next 16 weeks reaches or exceeds the highest output it has obtained over a consecutive four-week period during the occupation will receive a parcel containing the equivalent of 40,000 calories of food.”