WORKERS’ DEMAND

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21634, 10 February 1945, Page 3

WORKERS’ DEMAND

STRIP GERMANY WAR-MAKING POWERS PENALTIES EOR GUILTY (11 a.rn > RUGBY. Fob. 9. World Trade Union conference’.-; discussion on the trade union altitude towards the peace was opened to-da.v by Sir Waiter Citrine. His opening point was that the "core of the peace settlement is—how are we going to deal with Germany?” His answer was: “There is general agreement already that the peace settlement much achieve the following aims.”

H The complete liquidation of the evil system which the Fascist and Nazi dictators strove to impose on world security. 2. Germany’s blood guilty and war criminals must be brought to justice. Not only must they pay the lull penalty of their crimes, but every German man and woman who has taken an active part in atrocities of which a record exists must be brought to trial ancl punished. 3. Germany must make restitution of all stolen property of every description, whether looted, expropriated or plundered, to the extent of till that is humanly possible. •L Germany must be wholly disarmed by the surrender of all "munitions, the dissolution of the German General Staff, and the disbandment of all armed forces, by closing down all German war factories, the dispersal of all warlike stores and raw materials used in war manufacture, the dismantling of all industrial establishments in which war production lias been carried on, and by tiie outright prohibition of production and the use of aircraft. 5. Germany must be demilitarised all staff colleges and agencies of military instruction closed, the wearing of uniforms, except the police, prohibited to every kind of association, league, club or organisation and by such necessary changes in the political, economic, social and territorial structure of the German Reich as will destroy the foundation of the German military system. 0. Germany must be democratised particularly by the re-establishment of a free trade union movement, freedom of political and cultural association, freedom of the press and public meetings.

7. German youth must be reeducated in an atmosphere cleansed of tile Prussian militarist tradition.

8. Germany will tlius be transformed and must be reintegrated ultimately with toe European community and-with a new world order which the United Nations are resolved to establish in the coming peace settlement.

“Unconditional Surrender Essential” "It is clear to us all that nothing less than the complete, unconditional surrender of Germany can create conditions under which a just and enduring peace can be made,” he added. “If any vestige of the Nazi organisation survives the war, it will be a sure infection after the war.

“Unconditional surrender will shatter the legend built up after the last was that the German armies were undefeated and unbroken. Unconditional surrender means that we must carry on military operations to the point where Germany’s armed forces are no longer capable of opposing the advance of the Allied armies and Germany brought under military occupation.

“The political consequences, as well as the militax-y results of continuing the armed struggle to this conclusion are important—the entire problem of the peace settlement is involved in that conclusion. It confronts us, in the first place, with the possibility that there may be no armistice in the formal sense at all. There may not even be representatives of any central Reich Government or German General Staff whom the Allied Governments and their military advisers will recognise as bearers of a declaration of German surrender. "In the actual course of events, it is more than likely, instead of formal armistice terms, the conditions to which Germany will be required to submit will not be formulated, but applied practically by the actual occupation of Germany. For a considerable period the do facto Government of Germany will be the Allied occupying authorities. Trade Unions' Share

"It is inside Germany, as well as in the higher councils of the Allies and not within the four corners of a formal document called an armistice that the peace settlement will take shape. “It seems necessary that 'the trade union movement should be associated in a consultative advisory capacity with the administration, military and civil, concerned with the occupation of Germany as, during that occupation, the short-term programme of peace will be put in execution.” Sir Walter Citrine added that it was in the relations of the grand alliance of the United Nations that permanent organisation for peace and security will subsist and we must build upon this foundation the structure for maintaining peace which we desire to see. The question of reparations was the most dillicult of all problems of the peace settlement, concluded Sir Walter Citrine, and it might be beyond the material capacity of Germany, within any calculable limits of time, to make any full reparation. None would deny the right of Russia and the occupied countries to such service as German workers could give in rebuilding their ravaged lands. It was extremely unlikely that Britain or America would make any such claim upon German labour, but Britain must reserve her claim in that matter. How the Germans treated their reparation obligations would be one of the tests we must apply in deciding our future relations with them.