Hard Times in East Germany
Despite the Russian parade of handing over administration in their zone of Germany to the Lander Governments of the " Democratic Republic," the lot of the people of Eastern Germany is clearly becoming more and more miserable. It is impossible to detect in the arrangement for the delegation of the functions of the Russian military administration to Germans any clear transfer of rights or any guarantee that what little has been conceded will not be snatched beck at short notice. Herr Grotcwohl, in a remarkably servile utter- ance, has even welcomed this situation and undertaken to try to justify the trust the Russians have shown. There is a similar lack of genuineness in the procedures of the East German Parliament, whereby every decision must be " fixed " in private between the parties, so that there is no show of protest in the public sessions, even in such flagrant instances as the recent foisting upon the country of an amnesty to certain classes of former Nazis. This has proved a little too much for the Liberal Democrats, who still persist in their attempt to retain a shred of independence. There have been murmurs of protest. But these will almost certainly hasten this remnant of an opposition to the Communist elements along the road marked out for all " tolerated " oppositions in Eastern Europe. The Ministry of Internal Trade, which is presided over by a Liberal Democrat, has already had its functions reduced. Threats are already appearing in left-wing newspapers. And it is very difficult for the most courageous German to forget that there arc still concentration camps at Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen, looked after by the Russian forces. There is not the solace of an economic bribe, for the recent with- drawal of rationing is bound to be followed by a rise in prices. And since Marshal Rokossovsky's reference to the need to maintain the Oder-Neisse line the rumours of a territorial bribe have died away. If the Russians had deliberately set out to mark a contrast between hope in the west and despair in the cast they could hardly have done it more thoroughly.
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