The Strings of Power
From SARAH GAINHAM BONN
rr HE Christian Democrats have brought them- 1 selves, or have brought their chief, to the crucial decision that the party must have a chair- man who does nothing but look after party or- ganisation. Chancellor Adenauer is said to have proposed this himself. The provincial Minister of the Interior, Dufhues, of North Rhine-Westphalia is the candidate and there is not much doubt that the Party Congress in June will appoint him. This is the first major sign that notice has been taken of the election results inside the party. It is also the first sign that Dr. Adenauer now realises that he can no longer do everything himself.
In the last few weeks it has sometimes looked as if the aged Chancellor was really letting the lines slip out of his experienced hands. There have been little by-plays of incidents recently that simply could not have happened in former government periods. The American Ambassador to NATO came through Bonn on his way back from Berlin to Paris. Adenauer was unable to see him—he was ill. The Ambassador wanted an answer to a question: if it would make negotia- tions over Berlin easier for NATO to withdraw its (implicit) guarantee of the city and leave the legal guarantees entirely in the hands of the three ex-occupation powers, would this move have a serious psychological effect in the Federal Republic?
Unable to ask the fount of all answers, he asked first Defence Minister Strauss, and then Foreign Minister Schroeder. Neither could, or perhaps would, give him an answer. But Strauss asked a return question ; whether a favourable decision over giving atom weapons to NATO might shortly be expected from the Americans? In his turn the Ambassador was unable to answer. The interview seems to have ended shortly after this question. Almost imme- diately it was announced that the, prototypes of the new German tank--about fifty from three different firms—would be used this year in train- ing and exercises as further testing.
The French are already testing their candidate for a European tank. The Germans claim much for their tank, including an all-fuel motor, testing at Mercedes, which will run even on heating oil in an emergency and which is said to be very robust indeed; they also claim much experience with land warfare which has produced a tank model of speed, manoeuvrability, fire-power and comparative lightness. The Strauss tank could mount a very good British armament that Strauss admires; the French tank could not, for its turret is unsuitable. Strauss said that 'diplo- matic' factors would affect the final decision be- tween the French and German tanks; in other words, all things being equal, the European tank would probably be French. Up to now the Bundeswehr has used mainly American tanks (some British), none of which the Germans like —too heavy and not fast enough. They have always bought—for 'diplomatic reasons'—from the Americans. The implication could hardly be clearer. Now, sliding out of taking any respon- sibility for American decisions on Berlin may well have been done with the concurrence of the Chancellor, sick in bed. It is unlikely that the little tale of the tank followed it so strikingly fast by Adenauer's wish. Strauss was playing his own hand there.
Then again. Last week, Erich Mende, that politician of genius who leads the coalition minor, the FDP, concerned himself publicly with foreign affairs. Pushed by his Right-wing friend's Dehler and Achenbach, he said it would be a good idea for direct German-Russian conver- sations to take place over Berlin, as feelers. This was an echo of the unaddressed Russian Note of the end of December, which proposed just that and which caused a rattle of the old Rapallo bones in Western chanceries. It may be said that the Western fright was as unrealistic as the Russian Note that caused it—direct Gcrman- Russian talks over Berlin are about as likely as Mr. A. J. P. Taylor or Mr. John Osborne being appointed private tutor to Prince Charles.
The point was not Rapallo, though it is just possible that the Right wing of 'the FDP still retains such romantic notions. The point was that such a suggestion was just the last thing that Adenauer would approve of; his attitude to the Berlin question is that the Americans • should and must carry all the responsibility for the city. The reason for Mende's action became clear almost at once. As soon as Dr. Adenauer returned to work from his influenza, the question of the appointment of party-member State Secre- taries to various Ministries, a question which had been put off and off for months, was solved. Four State Secretaries were appointed in a few minutes, all FDP men, leaving only one post 'unfilled (afterwards a CDUI man got it). Dr. Mende, who, it will be recalled, is not in the Cabinet, made his suggestion at a press con- ference. That is, he deliberately put pressure on the Cabinet by publicising an idea diametrically opposed to government policy outside the coalition he is part of, in order to gain another end. When one considers what is at stake in Berlin, this is a quite impermissible political trick. It has such an air of what Bernard Shaw once called 'monkey-cleverness,' combined with complete irresponsibility and frivolity, that for the first time in years one feels a genuine fear that men like Mepde and his friends may ever hold power in this country.
Meanwhile Defence Minister Strauss is in trouble again for allegedly helping some dubious friends of his in his Bavarian homeland to fat contracts. Whether there was more to it than friendship will now be tested in the courts. This came to light through the feud between the news- weekly Der Spiegel, a paper that is in permanent opposition to everybody, and the Minister. Strauss makes a lot of enemies—he is the sort of man who engages in shouting matches with traffic policemen because they won't let him use a one-way street the wrong way. But in a coun- try where the press is wide open and where the silent self-censorship that 'exists in the British and American press is unknown, Strauss is always getting caught out. He is so good at his job that it is to be hoped he is learning what he can and cannot get away with. Just for this reason Strauss is not the sinister figure his enemies like to think him. It is the men behind Erich Mende and their like, pulling his little strings of vanity and self-importance, who are sinister and dangerous.
All these things and many more besides, in- cluding a positive flood of labour problems, make it urgent for the Chancellor to take the strings back firmly into his hands and keep them there. Or for somebody else to take them. . . ?
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