Average Briton Determined Not To Let Germany Start War Again

Wanganui Chronicle, 10 December 1949, Page 5

Average Briton Determined Not To Let Germany Start War Again

LONDON, Dec. 10 (Recd. 6 p.m.l— Sir Ivone Kirkpatrick, chief of the German section of the British Foreign Office, was uncommonly frank when at their invitation he addressed leading Ruhr and Rhineland industrialists and bankers in Dusseldorf last night He told them that the more the normal Briton heard of the origins of war the stronger became his resolve not to permit another German aggression. Suspicion of Germany was deeprooted in Britain, Sir Ivone said, but a belief that Britain was determined to eliminate Germany as a competitor was unjustified. British policy was guided by security. Britain had subsidised German economic recovery to . the tune of £2OO,-

000,000, and but for Britain the permitted level of German steel production today might have been only 5,000,000 or 6,000,000 Instead of 11,000,000 tons. The British were justified in taking a serious view of the renewed German tendency to believe the worst of Britain, Sir Ivone Fitzpatrick said. It was the third time he had seen that happening in his lifetime, and if the Germans were proposing to rely in future on their favourite theory that Britain was not only wicked but decadent, they would find it just as expensive as in the past. He said an effort was required on both sides if Anglo-German relations were to be put on a sound basis, but, so far the effort had been from the British side only.