COMMON POLICIES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 80, 30 November 1945, Page 5

COMMON POLICIES

FAILURE ALLEGED GOVERNMENT IN GERMANY CRITICISM OF FRANCE (Rec. 10.55 a.m.) Washington, Nov. 28. A re-examination of the whole structure of the military government of Germany, including the Potsdam declaration, is recommended by Mr Byron Price who investigated German occupation problems for President Truman. Mr Price’s report amplifies his recent assertion that, due to the French attitude, Germany is not being treated as an economic unit but is being handled in a manner amounting to virtual economic dismemberment. “The necessity of breaking the present deadlock in the Allied Control Council in Berlin is so important that the use of the full force" of the prestige of American diplomatic power to that end is fully warranted,” said Mr Price. “Repeated attempts have been made to establish common policies so the German railways, postal service and other facilities can be operated as integral national systems, but all efforts have failed, due almost entirely to France’s rigid opposition. If France is bent on the dismemberment of Germany she should be made to acknowledge her policy before the world and not be permitted to hide it behind opposite pronouncements of the Potsdam declaration. Our own policy should then be re-examined accordingly. We must also decide whether we are going to permit starvation with the attendant epidemics and disorders in the American zone or ship food to prevent it.” Mr Price added that the next few months would determine whether the American Government, in her first large-scale attempt to govern a conquered people, was to succeed or fail. There was plenty of evidence that the Germans were nursing old and new hatreds, from mounting bitterness as the situation became more desperate. They were listening hourly with traditional credulity for the voice of whatever type of new leader desperation might produce. Mr Price urged that a changeover from military government to civil control should be made with the highest type of civilian administrators not earlier than Ist June. The Military Government should be given greater discretion locally to decide how it should proceed regarding essential services. Railways, communications, etc. had been handicapped greatly by the abrupt removal of Nazis from key positions and the installation of inexperienced substitutes. Mr Price considered that with the winter bringing into the open whatever disorder and rebellion might now lie under the surface, the present was the wrong time to permit occupation forces to be decimated and robbed of military effectiveness by demobilisation. President Truman, in a note accompanying the report, called for careful consideration by the State, War and Navy departments. STATEMENT DENIED Taris, Nov. 28. A high official of the French Foreign Office denied the statement made by Mr Byron Price to President Truman on returning to Washington from his mission in Germany that France was largely responsible for the Allied failure for a centralised government in German}' says Paris radio. "France never in principle objected to this, but simply wants to have Germany’s frontiers definitely fixed beforehand. Should this be done France will have no objection to the establishment in Germany of a centralised government or organisation for the transportation of mails and superintending her harvest. As regards the Rhineland industrial zone and the Ruhr, the French point of view remains adamant that these regions must not be returned to Germany’s domination. They should be separated from Germany proper and placed under international control.