Germany in Subjection
The Government of Germany has ceased to exist, and with its eclipse the Allied Commanders, who have been the supreme autho- rities in territory as it has been conquered, now become responsible for administering the whole country. Under the terms of the Yalta agreement it now becomes necessary to set up the central Control Commission, consisting of the supreme commanders appointed by Great Britain, Russia, the United States and France ; and under each of these will be thousands of officials appointed to carry out the plans already made in detail by the European Advisory Commission. From now on this Commission is the only governmental body authorised to 'exercise power in Germany. It has to start almost from scratch. There is no intention at present of setting up a Ger- man Government, though in the provinces Germans will have to be selected for performing routine local services. Everything is in chaos—industriai buildings and towns smashed, transport at a standstill, food supplies unorganised, public services inoperative, and much of the population displaced from its normal location. Though Allied public opinion insistently and rightly demands that priorities of supplies should go to Allied countries, the duty devolves upon the Commission to get Germany back to work in the interests of others as well as of herself. The Economic Division will have to lay its plans so that German industry may make its contribution to European production, but in such a way that it can never again be used to assist German rearmament. The Education Division have to face the task of finding teachers and school-books for German children, who never again must grow up in an atmosphere of Nazism or aggressive nationalism. For years Germany will be an occupied country, in which it will fall to the Allies to shape the character of the public life through the machinery which they will impose from above. It goes without saying that there ought not to be four kinds of administration, each corresponding to the character of the controlling Power. An immense responsibility rests upon the Allied Commanders for welding the Control Commission into a single whole, with its various parts closely associated at the top. A unique opportunity is afforded for the officials of four countries to gain experience in co-operation, devising so far as possible a single system to be applied at many levels according to a joint plan.
