WILL IT BRING US CLOSER TO INTERNATIONAL WAR OR PEACE?
GIDEONSE, HARRY D.
Will It Bring Us Closer to International War or Peace? IT ia no secret that the meeting of Foreign. Ministers' deputies in London made little progress in its preparations lor the Moscow...
...20th on Marshslkowsks Street in Warsaw...
...It is not "one world" yet...
...Ilnilalcial Russian opportunities lor paralyzing tlie West no...
...If a free Europe is to emerge from th"> present chaos, a free and productive France will have to tie the cornerstone...
...Home comrades started to open their envelopes to melt sere they were voting far list number I, hot our leeder stepped them sad aoM, Oh, no...
...1 S agreement between the United States and Russia impossible with regard to Germany ? Agreement is possible—but only if Secretary Marshal) gives way and accepts the Soviet demands...
...Western Europe, including Britain, desperately needs production...
...In view of the immediate need for increased pioduction, anil the impossibility of arriving at an acceptable understanding with the Russians, we should orgsnize our own section on the strongest possible basis open to us...
...Germany would simply be a transmission channel through which the United States would in fact pay the reparations to Soviet Russia, and this would become particularly apparent after Britain's inability to continue its present subsidy is officially acknowledged...
...Moscow's prepared program Is more than that...
...By Harry D. Gideonse President of Brooklyn College...
...Well, it was free snd unfettered," answered Ladwlk, "but It was not anile secret...
...When the Germsn west is "denazified' in this msnner, as were Poland and Yugoslavia, it will be ripe for unification —so the Mos cow blueprint reads...
...To the Russians, "unity" means that the British and American sections must contribute to paying reparations from cunrrent and future production to Russia, and this can only be achieved if Germany which is now unable to pay for its own imports of food snd rsw materials, receives large additional Credits or subsidies to pay for the additional raw materials snd equipment which would mske "reparations from current and future production to Rusagreementa eovenfig only some aspects of the problem would be tatal at this stage, and only an over all agreement covering all the phases would be a basis for durable reconstruction...
...There should he no illusion on tnis point: the Soviet Government is not prepared to yield an inch of its program in so fsr as its essential points are concerned...
...Tea are Bet silowed te leek at your ballets, bees see this Is a secret .Uctlow...
...and the "unification" of Germany under a central government This "unification" is the greatest mischief of Soviet propaganda, and we can rest assured that the Arneiican delegates in Moscow will be able to expose it as it deserves...
...President of Freedom House American subsidies are indefensible economic nonsense...
...A Western European union under French, Belgian and Dutch control— with American and British help—and including the Saar, the Rhineland and the Ruhr should be organized as sn economic unit with all production controls lemuved...
...To us, and to the British, it means letting the Russian part of Germany contribute to the feeding of the American and the British sections...
...To make inn non aggi t ssivc purpose plain to all, we • ¦ • 111<I otfei to include Britain ami Russia "on terms of reciprocity...
...The Russians promised this at Potsdam, but now the Russian zone has been bled white so completely that it would simply mean adding a poor house to our own zones...
...I ran prove it...
...Or will we be satisfied with another piece of paper trading hunt economic and political realities tor some superficial verbal evidence of "agreement...
...Frsnce's psrticulai objections could essily be overcome once there is agicement among the Rig Three...
...It is possible that we should give financial subsidies for reconstruction to the Soviet Union, but it will be political wisdom to have such a negotiation clearly and frankly face the facts from the beginning, rather than to camouflage a subsidy through a so-called German reparations agreement...
...It would be a difficult choice to make even if all the great powers were guided by the same motives and inspired by similar ideas...
...It would In: moil than Russia has offered to us in Eastern Europe, and -in view of the nature of the Soviet system - it would probably be a futile gesture, since n |iolic< state cannot afford genuine 'reciprocity...
...New German productive capacity may ultimately become a menace to peace, and it may be wise to take a more sympathetic position toward the vi»ws of Fran.e...
...Ws were all hsnded sa envelope with the ballots alresdy Inside to save us time and trouble...
...SECRET ELECTION • Two Polish Communists met on Ian...
...We now know what the "free and unfettered elections" which Moscow promised in Yalta were worth, and we can see what Russia has made of the "economic unity" of Germany which it promised in Potsdam...
...Reciprocity yes...
...Molotov is opposed to resl unification and st the same time he seeks to throw the responsibility for the stale mate on the Americans and British - for the benefit of Soviet propaganda in Germany...
...We alf want "unity" in Germany, but the word means all things to all men...
...The fact that the second greatest industrial nation of the globe has ceased to perform its role in the world economy is one of the causes of inflations, coal shortages, and lack of industrial equipment and finished goods throughout Europe, including its eastern part...
...The Kremlin stage ia clearly set for another Yalta or Potsdam in which Russia offers some verbal promises in a softened mood in return tor some of the objective realities in American and British possession...
...The rest of Europe will watch us with despair: Have we learned from our experience...
...It would have incentives to restore production, and it would remove the legitimate French concern about |he ultimate political menace of a German-controlled heavy industry...
...Never in history has the world been as secure against German aggression as it is today, not even after the German collapse in 1918...
...The program provides for the definite annexation of Germany's eastern provinces dy Roland along a line sel by Stalin at Potsdam...
...There i3 no reason for representation of the Russians in the Ituhi as- lung as the Western countries mi not represented ill the control of Silesia...
...the western plan for a loose federation of German states is pictured by Moscow as anti-German, while Russia ostensibly seeks the immediate creation of a German Gov eminent by popular ballot...
...Appealing to the national sentiments of the German people, Moscow and its puppets in Germany try to present the western powers as opponents of the resurrection of a Germany as a united nation...
...All of us who work in the factory we roll Stalin, In honvr of fhe great leader of the grest country whose heroic srmy liberated us, met yesterday morning st the fsrtory snd after listening to s brilliant speech by our beloved leader, Gomulka, »i marched to the polling place...
...T " hi present "limits" on Germsn production together with the British snd Must We Hope For Failure At Moscow...
...A band played patriotic music snd soldiers marched proudly beside us...
...This time the future of Western civilization itself may be at stake...
...To revive the German economy, however, is to strengthen Germany...
...The problem is well-night insoluble in a world in which the great designs of the powers are as divergent as they are today...
...If it be political wisdom to (five the public mind weakening doses of what it likes to hear, and stronger doses of what it will have to get used to, it may lie politically wise to stress that if we are tempted to buy peace with Kussia at Moscow by granting them a large claim on German reparations from current production, there will ultimately be only one way in which Germany can pay such reparations, and that is through large American loans or subsidies...
...Under the circumstances the French insistence on the political separation of the industrial areas seems more defensible than English or American opinion is prepared to admit...
...to the West -to the Ruhr, where an international administration would include Soviet representatives...
...It will mark the opening of official discussions on the main problems of the European peace settlement, hut it will hardly achieve anything resembling a peace treaty...
...Even the present economic chaos in Germany calls for $350,000,000 a year subsidy frcm Britain and $200,000,000 from the United States...
...Our offer might make it cleai to third parties, however, that we are not concerned with the establishment of an American "zone of influence.'' It would restore the United States to a position where the rising sentiment lor a European solution would enable Ms to iiffrt strung ideological competition with tin drift toward a fatalistic acceptance, i'l Stalin'* totalitarianism...
...in fsrt, there is no other harrier to the economic snd politicsl merger of the zones of occupation than Soviet policy...
...Oh yea, it wss, comrade...
...Moscow is not at all picpared to incorporate its zone into an all-German state, in which the Communists would play no decisive role, as a prerequisite, Molotov would demand a "denazification" of Gei many similar to that carried out in (he Soviet zone- meaning the suppression of a free press, mock elections, and the prohibition of fhe Biggest of the German political parties- the Social Democrats—while the former Members of Hitler's party would be invited to purify themselves and stone for their sins by joining the Communist fsction...
...The British proposals to "nationalize" the key industries will merely set the stage for a later German nationalist or Stalinist control if Ihey tue not ucriiiiipanieii by appi npriate political Htileguaid...
...Today, however, the German problem is not primarily a military one, nor one of morals: it is one of economics...
...to strengthen Germany is to reduce the absolute security against a resurgence of German nationalism and militarism...
...It would si lengthen the position of France in Victor Hugo's language—as u "volcano vl light" in a united and free Europe, and it would give us a structure in which men might once again huve laith that theii labor might build a world in which a productive arid stable society might witness a new birth of freed.in . If "success" at the Moscow conference means reaching an agreement on what to do about Germany similai lo the Yalta agreement on Poland, then w« must hope for failure to ague, and proceed to organize the other three zone* a' democratically and constructively as poMsible...
...At Potsdam we had only Hitler's errors to correct, but now we have made several of our own...
...But should Marshall, as a maneuver, accept this "unification" proposal, its entire hypocrisy would soon become evident...
...Ministers' deputies in London made little progress in its preparations lor the Moscow conference...
...An Editorial— The Moscow Conference THE conference in Moscow will open twenty-two months after the end of hostilities in Europe...
...Said Josef: "It was a fine free, unfettered and secret election He had yesterday...
...This is the crucial problem of today...
...a Soviet jum...
...IVi Imps Do lust way of avoiding the tragic implications of the present, drift toward "two worlds," will be the establishment cl 11 viable "third world...
...The proposal to provide for Soviet participation in the control of the Ruhr is a proposal to perpetuate and extend tin present bankrupt regime of the Berlin area...
...In view of the present Russian position it seems impossible to secure such s comprehensive understanding, snd It msy therefore be better to let things in Central and Eastern Germany get worse before we can make them any better...
...The pitfalls for the delegates from Washington and Ixindon are slso prepared...
...Meanwhile .Moscow rants against American "imperialist design" in its shrillest postwar pitch, while "men of good will" in England and America are prayerful about "mending relations with the Soviets...
...Such an arrangement could be Kelt supporting...
...repura lions on a large scale from the western /.ones to Russia, while American capi tal pours into Germany to enable hei to produce so as to Ire able to pay i eparations...
...If the main preoccupation of the world were security against a new German onslaught, it apparently would suffice to prolong the present status indefinitely...
...rosarsdes...
...Not only has Germany ceased to exist as a military force, but there is actually no Germany at the present time...
Vol. 30 • March 1947 • No. 10
