TREATY FOR GERMANY

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25346, 20 November 1947, Page 7

TREATY FOR GERMANY

General Marshall On l.S.Policy PROPOSALS FOR LONDON TALKS (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 8.50 p.m.) CHICAGO, Nov. 18. Addressing the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations two days before he goes to London for the meeting of the Council off Foreign Ministers, the United States Secretary of State (General G. C. Marshall) disclosed that at the conference he intended to seek strict safeguards over the resources and industrial potential of the Ruhr so that they could be used for the benefit of Europe as a whole. He said that he would also urge the establishment off a provisional central authority in a federated German state. General Marshall accused the Soviet of “trying apparently to prolong the present unsatisfactory state of affairs in Europe indefinitely.” The Soviet delegates in the United Nations General Assembly, he said, were using propaganda of a most brazen and contemptuous character. “Since it affects the very stability off the world it is time to call a halt to such inflammatory practices.” He added: “I will seek only a sound basis for agreement. I will seek to avoid statements for mere popular propaganda effect, no matter what the provocation. It is my purpose to concentrate solely on finding an acceptable basis of agreement to terminate the present tragic stalemate and speed the advent of a new era of peace and hope for Europe and the world.” He emphasised that without a revival of German production there could be no revival of Europe’s economy, but the greatest care must be taken to ensure that a revived Germany could not again threaten the European economy. There was no question of the necessity for keeping Germany disarmed and demilitarised. “The United States’ offer of a fourPower 40-year German non-aggression pact still stands.” General Marshall said that there was an imperative necessity for safeguards to ensure that Germany’s economic power would not again be used as a weapon to further exclusive German policies. Safeguards must be established to ensure that the resources and industrial potential of the Ruhr, particularly coal and steel, were not exclusively controlled by any future German government; but in fairness to the American taxpayer, who was contributing hundreds of millions of dollars annually to support the people in the American zone, Germany must be made self-supporting as soon as possible. If adequate safeguards were provided, it should be possible to establish a provisional central authority in a federated German state and finally to frame a peace settlement. “At the London conference we shall earnestly endeavour to make progress along these lines.”

Campaign Against U.S. Dealing with world problems, General Marshall said: “We are aware of the seriousness and extent of the campaign which is being directed against the United States as one of the bulwarks of Western civilisation. We are not blind to any of the forms this attack assumes, and we do not propose to stand by and watch the disintegration of the international community to which we belong.” Emphatically denying accusations of aggression, imperialism, and war-mon-gering against the United States, General Marshall said: “There is no truth whatever in these charges, and I add that those who make them are fully aware of that fact. “We can afford to discount the alarms and excursions intended to distract us and to proceed with calm determination along the path our traditions have defined.” General Marshall said that Britain . and America were genuinely striving for European recovery, but unfortunately it was apparent that a third great Power which had contributed much to the common victory did not share that purpose, and this divergence of purpose about the future of Europe was the cause of many of the present differences between the United States and Russia. “The divergence is not due to any direct clash between the national interests of these Powers. It is my belief that if Europe is restored as a solvent, vigorous community, this issue will have been decided, and the disturbing conflict .between ourselves and the Soviet, so far as Europe is concerned, will lessen.”

General Marshall accused Soviet officials and Communist groups in many -countries of “waging with increasing venom a calculated campaign of vilification and distortion of American motives in foreign affairs.” Emphatically denying such charges, he said: “We have not used ihe greatest military power and resources ever assembled to acquire for the United States a special privileged position, either political or economic.” He added that both the United States and Britain since the end of the war had voluntarily reduced the area of their sovereignty in the world and had given dependent peoples independence and a place in the United Nations. Motives of Marshall Plan General Marshall denied that the Americans needed the Marshall plan to dump surplus goods and avoid a depression. “That particular charge must have a strange sound to those Europeans now desperately seeking the very essentials to life, and it must sound equally odd to Americans who are standing with money in hand impatient to buy goods which we are sending to Europe to meet more urgent needs.” Saying that before the London conference he was anxious to clear up issues arising from the propaganda exchanges between the Soviet and the United States, General Marshall declared: “When the war ended the American people held the Soviet people, army, and leaders in high regard, but to-day that attitude is completely changed. The truth as I see it is that from the termination of hostilities to the present the Soviet Government has consistently followed a course which was bound’ to arouse the resentment of our people. “Many actions of the Soviet Government have been provocative, without any other evident purpose. lam unable to explain why the Soviet Government should destroy, apparently deliberately, the invaluable asset of high regard and good will which it possessed, and why it should deliberately provoke animosities. The American people have been very patient, but' to-day they have been menr’ Uy driven into acti ve resentGeneral Marshall said that he was not pessimistic about the progress £ ac fe by .J£ e United Nations aS sembly The organisation did pass H r h£ gh a seri ° us struggle, but I think it has emerged with no loss of potential strength.”