A Losing Battle.

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 August 1946, Page 6

A Losing Battle.

It is clearly evident that the Western Democracies are fighting a losing battle with Russian totalitarianism for the soul of Germany. They have no agents in the Russian zone to explain their case. Russia has Communists in every zone to spread the report that the Western Powers are starving the-people as a deliberate policy of revenge, and that they are stripping their factories in order to destroy Germany as an industrial competitor. At the same time Russia has the bread-basket of the Reich and the other zones have most of the empty stomachs. Russia refuses to co-operate in. filling them. Germany can be saved lor Western civilisation only by swift and firm action on the part of the Western Powers. Over a year has passed since the doom of Hitler was followed by the surrender of the Nazi armies and yet the leaders of the victorious nations have not yet started discussions on the peace settlement for Germany. A Peace Conference is meeting in Paris, but the question of the future of the former Reich and also Austria has been excluded from the agenda. At the moment there is not a vestige of agreement among the four occupying Powers on any fundamental issue. Obviously there is good reason for the opinion expressed in Paris that the trend towards the nightmare of a divided Europe continues.