A PROSPEROUS GERMANY

Evening Star, Issue 25927, 19 October 1946, Page 7

A PROSPEROUS GERMANY

ESSENTIAL TO WORLD PEACE MUST BE DEMILITARISED AND STAY SO LONDON, October 18. “ Speculations on Germany’s future presuppose the continuance of peace,” says'the ‘Times’ in a leader, “but European peace would rest on surer foundations if the victors would agree to let Germany’s course of action in the remoter future be Germany’s affair and concentrate now on defining in the peace treaty the limits within which a future Germany shall be free to act.” The outline of such a treaty, the ‘ Times ’ points out, is not hard to sketch, and the essentials, are simple. Germany must be demilitarised and stay demilitarised, and the Allies must exchange guarantees against her rearmament. The best hope of a peaceful Germany, the ‘ Times ’ continues, will be a prosperous Germany, even though a prosperous Germany would potentially be a danger. If Germany, with a larger population and a smaller area, is to prosper, she must eventually have not less industry than before, but more, and, if that industry is to be applied securely to peace, the Allies must themselves stay united in banning German' weapons, and the German people must pursue a new ideal. The ‘ Times ’ adds that Western Europe will one day need a prosperous trading Germany, and so. will Eastern Europe. All through history Germany has looked now eastward, now westward. Perhaps in the future she will look both ways, but the choice in the long run must be hers.