Bonn Bill Gives Wide Powers

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31680, 16 May 1968, Page 13

Bonn Bill Gives Wide Powers

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) BONN, May 15. Draft emergency laws that would give the West German Government farreaching powers in times of crises go before the Bundestag (Lower House) for second reading today after a decade of furious public opposition.

First presented to Parliament in 1958, the bill has been revised, supplemented and amended more than a dozen times in the face of bitter attacks from trade unions, liberal organisations, students and intellectuals.

They fear that the laws could pave the way towards dictatorship in a country with a long history of the misuse of exceptional powers. Legal experts, however, insist that the draft compares favourably with emergency powers in any other Western democracy. Expected to be passed In June, the laws envisage the use of soldiers as police, conscription of all males over 18 into civil defence units and the establishment of a restricted Parliament in times of external aggression or “internal danger.” The legislation also provides for West German authorities to take over the Allies’ rights to tap telephone calls and open mail. The three Western allies— France, the United States and Britain—reserved these rights under the 1954 Bonn conventions which brought the postwar Occupation to an end. Last night, the East German Prime Minister, Mr Willy Stoph, said in a letter to the West German Chancellor, Dr Kurt Georg Kiesinger, that approval of the laws would increase tension In Europe. They were a threat to peace and paved the way towards further renazification in West

• Germany, Mr Stoph alleged. The West German Governl ment denied the charges and i condemned them as interfer- ' ence in Bonns's internal i affairs. , On Saturday, about 50,000 students and trade unionists . marched on- Bonn to protest ■ against the planned legislation.