AMERICA HAS NEW PLAN FOR GERMANY’S RECOVERY

Evening Star, Issue 26155, 17 July 1947, Page 7

AMERICA HAS NEW PLAN FOR GERMANY’S RECOVERY

BERLIN, July 15. The United States State Department has sent a new directive to General Lucius Clay, the American Military Governor, in Germany, instructing him to oppose vigorously any attempt to impose any external forms- of , government on Germany. The directive declared that the German people should be assisted in attaining a higher standard of living and economic self-suffi-ciency. It laid particular stress on Germany achieving economic and political unity. " The United States Government believes that the level of industry eventually agreed upon for Germany as a basis for reparation removals, while eliminating the excess industrial capacity which Germany used for making war, should not permanently limit Germany’s industrial capacity,” the statement added. The directive made a clear attempt to fit the American policy in Germany into Mr Marshall’s plan for the economic recovery of Europe, and instructed General Clay to consult other European countries. The United States would be ready to increase expenditure to enable the restoration of normal international commercial relations between Germany and the rest of Europe. The directive also instructed General Clay to ensure that emphasis is given in the selection _of items for export, to . goods which European countries need for their economic re-

covery. It instructed him to urge nation-wide elections in , Germany under four-Power supervision and recognition of nation-wide political parties. It said the United Nations desired that there should arise as rapidly as possible in Germany a form of political organisation ' and manner of political life resting on a substantial basis of economic , well-being. The directive said Genera! Clay was being given “ vast powers ” and must try to achieve economic unity with the other zones. “A - properly organised, -' happy Europe needs the economic contribution of a secure, productive Germany as much as the necessary restrictions guaranteeing that Germany is in no position to revive her destructive militarism,” the directive says. “ The United States has proposed to the other occupying Powers an agreement for the permanent disarmament and demilitarisation of Germany and pledgbd itself to keep American occupation forces in Germany as long as foreign occupation lasts. CREATION OF FEDERAL STATES. ” The Unified States believed that the creation of Federal German States throughout Germany and the establishment of a strong central Government, with defined limited powers, was best suited to German political life. The United States did not wish to impose its own forms of democracy on Germany, and >it believed equally (irmly that no other external forms should be imposed. , • The directive emphasises that the’United States i? enposed to an excessively centralised Government which througn i,oncemri.i.iori of power might threaten the existence of Germany, democracy, and the world. General Clay must not interfere in the question of public ownership and enterprise in Germany except to' ensure that any choice for or against public ownership was made freely and democratically. No measure of public ownership should apply to foreignovvned property without satisfactory compensation for the owners. The directive said the United States was opposed to financing German reparations to other United Nations by delaying the achievement of a selfsustaining German economy. It instructed Genera] Clay to urge the Control Council to adopt uniform financial policies, and instructed him to use German economic resources to the utmost in order to reduce American expenditure and expedite Germany’s international cultural relations. The directive is the first post-, war statement of American policy on Germany. It supersedes the joint Chief-of-staff directive issued on April 26, 1945, a fortnight before Germany surrendered. STATEMENT REGARDED AS HAVING SPECIAL SIGNIFICANCE LONDON, July 16. The Berlin correspondent of ‘ The Times ’ says that General Clay's directive is regarded as possessing a special significance. The forthrightness of the language in which it is phrased is unmistakable, and was doubtless so meant to be by Washington Those in Berlin who had a chance to read this re-statement of “ basic policies” hold it to be timely and necessary.The emphasis throughout on democratic development in the western sense is considered to be highly important at a time when every effort is being made by Russian-sponsored Communists to impose their own minority rule on Germany in the interest of so-called political and economic unity; and in its reference to “ re-establishment of the riile of- law in Germany.” The neiv directive is not without relevance to the arrests and deportations in the Russian sector of Berlin and the zone as a whole