UNITY OF GERMANY

Grey River Argus, 17 May 1946, Page 5

UNITY OF GERMANY

RESTORATION URGED By United States AT BIG FOUR CONFERENCE. LONDON, May 15. Mr. J. A. Byrnes, United States, at the Foreign Ministers’ Conference, this morning, proposed that a Peace Conference should be called for July 12, to draft a peace treaty for Germany. He proposed that representatives of the four nations should begin meeting immediately to draw up a treaty draft, which the Foreign Ministers’ Council would present to the conference. Their representatives should report on Germany’s economic status to the Council’s next meeting, possibly on June 15. Mr. Byrnes listed the following points of immediate economic importance for the administration of Germany, on which he suggested special deputies should work: — (1) Whethei’ the Ruhr and the Rhineland should be internationalised. If so, what remaining resources would be a part of the German economic structure ? (2) Whether the resources left to Germany should be made available for the whole of Germany, and whether the surplus above German needs should be made available for export. (3) Whether an agreement could be reached on the setting up of administrative machinery for the operation of Germany as an economic unit.

(4) Whether the zone boundaries should be continued merely as demarcation lines for occupation and not as barriers for economic exchange within Germany. (5) Whether tentative agreement could be reached to include in the draft treaty the eventual western limits of Germany.

Mr. .Byrnes said the five points must be settled without delay to avoid imminent chaos in Germany next Winter. He emphasised the grave food shortage in the American zone. The United States had already paid £50,000,000 for the import of food into the zone.

(Rec. 8.20.) LONDON, May 16. "The Times” correspondent at Paris says: Mr. J. F. Byrnes (U.S.A. Secretary) in his statement on Germany mphasised that there would be dangers in carrying out the Potsdam proposals for the dismantlement of German industries while Germany was still split in four almost watertight zones, and while the Powers had no clear picture before them of Germany’s political future. His own advisers in Germany had reported that, in default of a wide understanding about Germany as a whole, there would be chaos in the American zone if the factories continued to be dismantled and despatched before the reparations: and he was sure that there would be similar t disruption in the other zones there also. In the American zone he said, it would create definite financial liability to dismantle and despatch the factories. That liability, his Government, for one, was not ready to accept. He was not assailing the reparations decisions which had been taken at Potsdam, but those decisions pre-supposed that Germany would be treated as an economic unit, and it was such a settlement that he was seeking to ensure.

The other Foreign Ministers requested time to study the proposal. M. Molotov (Russia), requested more information about the progress of the demilitarisation of Germany, particularly in the British zone. From this, he said, Russia had not received sufficient information. Mr. Bevin (Britain) retorted that Britain had answered all questions asked by the Berlin Control Council. M. Bidualt (France) presented the French proposal for the internationalisation of the Ruhr and the Rhineland and the virtual annexation of the Saar by France. He recalled the number of times France had had to fight Germany. He argued that economic measures .vere not enough. Political separation was necessary. Mr. .Bevin said that although he appreciated France’s need for security, he thought that Germany should he treated as a unit. The Ministers decided again to discuss the German question at an informal meeting. NEW ARMISTICE TERMS FOR ITALY. Mr. Byrnes placed before the Ministers a draft for the revision of the Italian armistice, suggesting that abolition of the Allied Commission there in favour of a new body under the Allied Command’s direct control, says Reuter’s Paris correspondent. The draft is expected to have Mr. Bevin’s and M. Bidault’s support. M. Molotov’s attitude is not known. The draft proposes that the Allied Military Government should retain control of Venezia Giulia and Undine provinces, pending the conclusion of a formal treaty and plans for the rapid repatriation of the Italian prisoners still in Allied territories, and calls on the Italian Government to cooperate in the arrest and trial of war criminals. YUGOSLAVS CLAIM TO RULE TRIESTE. M. Kardelj, Yugoslav delegate at Paris, said Yugoslavia would accept internationalisation of the port of Trieste but could never agree to internationalise the citv on the Danzig model. His Government’s demand to control Trieste was a matter of principle. His Government was prepared to give Trieste an independent status within a Yugoslav Federation and would guarantee private property and enterprise in the city. The port could be an independent area, under an international body, comprising all countries interested. He was convinced that if a fair plebiscite was held in Trieste, the majority would favour Yugoslav rule. . BREAKDOWN EXPECTED. The "Daily Telegraph” political correspondent says: Mr. Attlee and the Dominion Ministers will meet on May 20 to consider the possibility of agreeing on a joint policy in the event of a breakdown of the Paris talks. Mr. Mackenzie King, who will arrive on Saturday, will give complete representation of the Dominions. It is believed in London that the conference of Foreign Ministers in Paris is likely to end in a deadlock as complete as that which ended last year’s meeting. The matter in which the Dominions are ‘likely to be most, inferetsed is the Four Power disagreement’ over the Italian Treaty. The meeting will’ also probably discuss Commonwealth citizenship.