CUT IN TROOPS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22289, 26 March 1947, Page 5

CUT IN TROOPS

UNITS INGERMANY AMERICAN PLEA MOSCOW CONFERENCE REDUCING BURDEN MOSCOW, March 24. Mr. George Marshall proposed to the Big Four Foreign Ministers’ conference that it should, in effect, order a reduction of the Allied occupation forces in Germany to the minimum necessary to carry out the Allied policies and to protect security.

The Allied Control Council, under the proposal, would be directed to report by June 1. 1947, that the forces it considered necessary for each of the four zones on July 1, 1947 and on July 1, 1948. Mr. Marshall sought a declaration that a reduction in forces and occupation costs were necessary to make German economy self-supporting as soon as possible and to help to expedite German production for export. Pact for No Claims on Austria A secret agreement which was reached at the Potsdam conference, under which Austria would pay no _ reparations, was revealed at discussions by the Foreign Ministers’ deputies on the Austrian treaty to-day. The deputies for the 'Western Powers wanted the agreement included in the Austrian draft treaty. The Russian delegate, M. Gusev, urged that Yugoslavia, which was the only nation with reparations claims against Austria, should be heard before anything was decided. The most crucial single issue that the Big Four Foreign Ministers have discussed is how Germany shall live, not merely how she shall be governed, says The Times in a leading article. Allied nerves touched by this central, issue—which is crystallised under the headings of German economic unity, reparations and the level of German industry—and are tender because it raised scarcely less directly the question of how Britain, France and Russia shall live.

Russia’s Hopes of Western Reparations

Russia claims £2,500,000,000 in reparations from Germany and undoubtedly not only have the Russians removed quantities of German capital equipment, but they arc also levying a steep toll on current production. Russia regards reparations from eastern Germany as inadequate and hopes to supplement them from western Germany. Britain and America, on the other hand, maintain that no reparations can at present be taken from western Germany. Oil present plans, western Germany cannot possibly reach equilibrium on a minimum living standard before 1950 —let alone achieve an export surplus. By that time the British claim for repayment alone may amount to £375,000,000 and the American claim will be about the same. These could scarcely be repaid before 1900.

In effect, reparations from western Germany's current production could not be paid for nearly 15 years. Russia’s claim for reparations is both just and justly large, but the settlement must, perforce, deal with what is practicable. Blood cannot be got out of a stone. Germany is incomparably poorer than in 1918, and reparations from current production cannot be paid for many years except at the cost of reducing Germany to a desert. Mr. Hoover’s Proposals Europe’s productivity could not be restored without the restoration of Germany as a contributor, said Mr. Herbert Hoover in his third report to President Truman on his mission to Germany and Austria. He recommended, first, that German industry should be freed of foreign ownership, but be subject to a control commission; secondly, that the removal and destruction of plants, except arms plants, should be stopped; thirdly, the Ruhr and Rhineland, which are the heart of German industrial economy, should continue as part of Germany.

Mr. Hoover criticised the Russians and French for the failure of the efforts to achieve economic unity in the four Allied zones. He said that both the Russian and French zones also were producing commodities which would relieve necessities in the British and American zones and could contribute to exports with which for pay for food. ‘‘The United States and Britain, through relief, are paying Russian and French reparations,” he said. Mr. Hoover refers to the Russian Government’s acquisition of a large part of the key operating industries in its zone and adds: “Germany must be free from ownership of industry by a foreign Government. German industry must be operated by Germans if any international control is to work, if she is to recover production and if she is to serve all nations equally.”