BRITONS IN WEST GERMANY

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26396, 14 April 1951, Page 3

BRITONS IN WEST GERMANY

Economies In Public Spending LUXURIES WILL NOT BE PERMITTED (By ALLAN G. BETTANY, Reuter’s Correspondent in Bonn.) High British officials who enjoy luxury accommodation in the castles of the old German aristocracy and industrial markets will have to adjust themselves to new austerity standards in the near future. General Sir Sidney Kirkman, QuartermasterGeneral at the British War Office for three years until June 1950, has arrived in the British Zone with the title of Special Financial Representative and the alm to cut the German mark costs of the British Occupation Forces. » *

General Kirkman is said to believe in cutting out opce and lor all the lavish expenditure on occupation accounts incurred by the British Control Commission and, to a lesser extent, by the armed forces in the first years after the war. The British Treasury is keen to reduce- German expenditure to prevent a heavier charge falling upon the British taxpayer as the result of the building up of security forces in Western Germany. Officials argue that there is a limit to the amount which can be extracted from the Germans in occupation costs, especially as West Germany may before long decide to make , a defence contribution of its own. In that case, it is claimed, tne excess expenditure would fall upon the British and other Allied taxpayers, and so it is essential that early steps shaud be taken to prune extravagance. In future, it is suggested, land commissioners and other high officials will have to observe the housing standards of the armed Services and the civil service in Britain. Whereever possible, houses will be built for the occupation forces to avoid further requisitioning, and they will be so designed that they can be sub-divided' into small units to meet the German housing shortages when they are eventually returned to the German authorities. General Kirkman’s’ view is understood to be that, while l the rank and file of the armed forces and junior officers and control commission officials are modestly housed, many senior officers find officials are lodged on an unnecessarily lavish scale. This is not. British officials assert, the fault of the persons themselves but often because when requisitions were first made in 1945, too many large houses were taken over, while in many localities no suitable houses existed,

General Kirkman has Collected a small expert staff. Their scrutiny will not be directed specially to the amount of German labour employed, which is believed to be excessive. Germans are now used in large numbers as workmen and mechanics in Army and Air Force establishments, and also as labourers in barracks to relieve the troops of most of their fatigues. By the time General Kirkman is finished, British troops in Germany may have to peel their own potatoes and do many other jobs now done by Germans.

General Kirkman argues that in war an army cannot take its charwomen along with it. and that German labour is very costly He is looking for the right method to curb reckless extravagance, which has admittedly occurred in manv cases in the decoration and furnishing of reouisitioned houses. German contractors have been the chief gainers from these excesses. Among the complicated tasks of the economy staff is that of dealing with ♦he many rackets which have arisen because the German mark is st’U -'clculatod for the occupation forces at the old military rate of 40 marks to the £, instead- of 11.76. Domestic servants, N.A.A.F.I. and mess employees, railway fares end many other services are still paid for on the basis of th” fid mark. Priva*“ t“lenhon<” in British houses cost 10s. a month, with unlimited local and long distance cal’s. Rents are also calculated on the fWitious fcasl* of 40 marks ♦o the £y Incidentally, the British Treasury pockets the sterling raid bv 1 British civTians and offeers tor their rents., telephones.- and servants, while the German taxpayer foots the bill.