THE ARRESTS IN GERMANY
, It was, no doubt, inevitable that for one of the Occupation Powers to make the arrests under the Occupation Statute at a moment when it is everyone's desire that that instrument should cease to exist as soon as possible would arouse strong feelings in Germany. Our German correspondent gives reasoned and temperate expression to them in an article on a later page. It cannot be supposed that Mr. Eden and Sir Ivone Kirkpatrick failed to appreciate that fully before they took their decision. They did take it, and as a result a mass of documents has been seized which will indicate what the real extent and potentialities of the alleged conspiracy are; there appears to be reason to believe that important information will be brought to light. Dr. Adenauer had no doubt to make some show of aligning himself. with the critics of the British action, but it may be questioned whether in fact he takes serious exception to it. His statement on the subject in the Bundestag on Wednesday was completely reasonable, and it was diplomatic to express agreement with the two points Mr. Eden had made the day before, that the activity of the Neo-Nazis constituted no immediate threat, but that such as it was it could not be ignored. Various recent events have driven the latter point home. When a Right Wing party meeting can be controlled, as one was at Winterhude, near Hamburg on Sunday, by two hundred and fifty members of the resuscitated Stalhelm organisation, the great majority of them in uniform, the need for unsleeping vigilance by both German and British authorities requires little emphasis.
