GERMAN ECONOMY

Greymouth Evening Star, 15 October 1946, Page 10

GERMAN ECONOMY

AMERICAN POLICY MAY BE REVISED LONDON, October 13. America is likely to initiate a radical revision of economic policy towards the Western Allies in Germany, states the correspondent of the “Observer” in Berlin. The result is likely to be the drastic modification, if not the abandonment of the plan for German industry agreed on by the Big Four last March. Germany’s reparations are likely to be curtailed, as America gives credits to Germany through the Reconstruction Finance Corporations. The United States Secretary of State (Mr. James Byrnes) at present is preparing ■ proposals to be made to the Foreign Ministers’ Council in November on the basis of a memorandum invited from German provincial governments by the American Control authorities. The Germans are asking the Allies to abate reparations allowing for the industry Germany lost in territorial concessions. They are also asking that the Western Allices reduce claims for industrial plant in Western zones in the light of the quantity removed from the east by the Russians. The United States authorities m Germany are believed to sympathise with these ideas.