Displaced Germans
The existence of nine million German refugees, displaced from their homes in Poland, Czechoslovakia and Eastern Germany, is the nemesis of Nazism. The forcible uprooting of masses of unwanted people was the very basis of Hitler's " New Order" in Europe, and it is not surprising, perhaps, that like treatment should be meted out to " inconvenient ' Germans by their former victims. But this great human tragedy is also the consequence of Soviet foreign policy, which remains primarily responsible for this adoption of the debased standards of Nazi conduct and for encouraging similar behaviour by the Polish and Czech Governments. The whole situation is dis- cussed in unreal terms unless these two basic facts are admitted. Those who propose to remedy it by asking Englishmen to surrender their own food rations in order to " Save Europe Now " are pro- posing a remedy which, even if it were practicable, would only tinker with the enormous problem of feeding, clothing, housing and settling nine million people in war-stricken Germany. The essential is that, because this tragedy is the consequence of both Nazism's aftermath and Soviet 'policy, it has not yet been tackled by the joint action of the major Powers through which alone it could be tackled. It is a double tragedy of human misery and of break- down in effective international co-operation. It needs handling on the political level to prevent further expulsions, and on the adminis- trative level of immediate joint provision by the occupying Powers for the needs of these unhappy people. To restore tolerable con- ditions of life in Europe as a whole is a common interest, calling for common acting which neither desire for vengeance nor one- sided sympathy should obscure. The situation is all the more desperate in that priority of supplies must necessarily be given to our liberated Allies, and that the reluctance of many displaced Poles to return to their native land will leave the evacuated territories under-populated and therefore under-productive.
