NEWS OF THE WEEK
IT was fully time for Russia's breaches of the Potsdam Agreement'.
regarding the occupation of Germany to be raised, and Mr. Bevin in his speech at Paris on Wednesday, and in the memorandum that accompanied it, was both plain-spoken and constructive. The greater part of the £8o,000,000 a year which the British zone in Germany is costing Britain, and of the L50,000,000 which the American zone is costing America, is being expended because a fundamental canon of the Potsdam Agreement—" during the period of occupation Germany shall be treated as a single economic whole " —is being flagrantly violated. While Russia has a surplus of food- stuffs in the eastern zone, the great granary of Germany, Britain and America have to import food from overseas to keep the populations in their zones alive. Since Russia is not only removing capital equip- ment from her zone, which the Potsdam Agreement authorised, but also helping herself to Germany's current production, she is making quite a good thing out of her occupation, while our occupation is costing the British taxpayer, as stated, £8o,000,000 a year. Mr. Bevin's proposal, that there shall be an equitable distribution of Germany's indigenous resources throughout the four zones, and that any resources surplus to one zone shall be used to make up deficiencies in another, is eminently reasonable, and no one can complain of his warning that if a fair settlement is refused Britain will have to organise German exports from her zone to pay for food imports into that zone. The American General McNarney has declared roundly that efforts to treat Germany as an economic unit had broken down com- pletely owing to Russian non-co-operation. If that conclusion is accepted the three Western Powers will have no alternative but to develop Western Germany in their own way.
