UPKEEP OF GERMANY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26215, 27 July 1946, Page 7

UPKEEP OF GERMANY

HEAVY BURDEN ON BRITAIN STEPS FOR ALLEVIATION (Rec. 7 p.m.) LONDON, July 25. The Select Committee on Estimates reported that the net estimated cost to the British taxpayer of control in Germany and Austria was £80,54,310. The report stated that “it is probably without parallel in history that a year after the war Britain should be paying that sum every year for the upkeep of her principal adversary.” The report resulted from a visit to Germany of a special committee of the House of Commons, which spent five days at the beginning of July investigating the cost to the British taxpayer of administration of the Britisn zone.

The report'adds that of 5,500,000 houses in the British zone in. -1939 2,000,000 had been destroyed and 1,500,000 badly damaged during the war. By May 13, 1946, 554,000 dwelling units in the zone, as well as 30,000 in the Berlin sector, had been repaired, but 20,000 people still lived in cellars in Hamburg alone. The committee submits that the cost to the taxpayer could be alleviated by a more rapid “ screening ” of the Germans, more rapid devolution under control of executive responsibility to the German authorities, and reducing the Control Commission’s staff while improving their quality. The committee says the cost of administration is not likely to be reduced unless three problems are solved —first, economic reintegration of the zones of occupation; secondly, the formulation of a firm long-term policy for the whole of Germany or such policy for the British zone and the other zones as may be brought into the framework of a single economy; thirdly, breaking the present vicious circle of shortages of food, coal, and consumer goods.”

At the date of the report there were about 40,000 persons confined to concentration camps. Some of them had been confined for more than a year without trial, and the number of inmates was increasing. “If part of the object of occupation is to attract Germans to the British way of life, this is a singular method of setting about it.” says the report. “ The net result must be that the Germans have no sense of security. British prestige and German output suffer equally from these causes."