RUHR COAL AND STEEL

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 89, Issue 301, 21 December 1945, Page 5

RUHR COAL AND STEEL

EXPROPRIATION OF ENTIRE PROPERTY SOON BRITISH PLANS TAKE SHAPE (Spacial Correspondent—N.Z.P A.) Recd. 8 p.m. London, Dec. 20. Expropriation of the entire property of the coal mines and steel plants of the Ruhr by the British occupation authorities is soon to take place, reports the “Manchester Guardian’ ” diplomatic correspondent. The plan envisaged is one that might loosely be descrioed as nationalisation. Direction and ownership will pass from German companies and their managements to British authorities to be held in trust until such time as the future of the Ruhr is finally decided. Managements appointed by the British will no douot take the place ot the presen* German personnel.

The process differs considerably from the nationalisation that is being carried out in the Russian zone. There Slate control is being put into force piecemeal and holdings are handed over to German provincial administrations. The Ruhr plan applies to the area as a whole with control vested in the occupying Power in lieu of the State, wmeh has yet to be delined. The door is thus left open tor any subsequent international project, if such should lx? agreed upon in the future. The first indication of British intentions was the round un at the beginning of December ot a large number of Nazi industrialists of the Ruhr. Accused of supportin.? their presence too long British authorities have been more or less obliged to tolerate it in the early dilemma of getting industry going at all. The sudden wide-scale arrests were a sign that this uneasy period is passing. It is also clear that since the whole weight of heavy German industry was behind the Nazi Party any thorough system of deNazification must lead to a situation where expronriatioy would almost be inescapable. De-Nazification hns been a stron r factor in about the British decision as any will to impose a rationalised regime.

The chief point of difference between the French and British views is aliened to be that whereas the British favour economic internationalisation, the French demand political interna--tionalisation also. Although this demand may not appear in so many words in the French nlans, it can be assumed from the French desire for economic internationalisation, coupled with France’s objection to bringing the Ruhr within the writ of the central German administration. In the long run a compromise between the two views might not be impossible.