DIVIDING GERMANY

Grey River Argus, 23 September 1944, Page 5

DIVIDING GERMANY

ALLIED OCCUPATION What is Intended (Rec. 11.10) NEW YORK, Sept. 22. The “New York Times” Washington correspondent says: Mr Churchill ann President Roosevelt drafted at Quebec a post-armistice directive to General Eisenhower, which will result in the strictest possible control of German industry and a ruthless elimination of all elements of the Nazi Party.- It is impossible to say, at present, what Britain and America propose about internationalising or destroying German industry,. or whether they propose to break up Germany permanently into independent States, but it can be said that those officials favouring a drastic settlement of the German problem, are at present in the ascendancy, and that their voices predominated at Quebec. No German Government of .any description is going to control German heavy industry, and, immediately after the armistice, great quantities of German railroad engines, rolling stock, machine tools ana machinery will be moved from Germany and given to Germany’s plundered victims. Persons familiar with the Quebec discussions assert that Messrs Churchill and Roosevelt favour a lengthy occupation of Germany to remove the German menace, and nobody is sanguine about the possibilities of a liberal German movement developing for a long time. 7, Quebec plan provides for British, American and Russian occupational areas in Germany which will be placed under autonomous high commissioners, each of whom will be responsible to its own Government, and all three forming a German Commission to co-ordinate occupation policies in the three regions. But there are no provisions ensuring that the United States will have any say about the policy in the Britisn or Russian occupation zones or vice versa. However, it is generally admitted that the liaison of the three Powers on German post-war policy still leaves a great deal to be desired. It is hoped that future meetings between Mr Churchill, M. Stalin and Mr Roosevelt will improve their understanding.