The Germans Go Their Own Way
The power of the Bonn Government to inflict unpleasant shocks on the Western Powers was demonstrated once again last Saturday when the decision was made to continue deliveries of steel to the Eastern Zone, despite the fact that promised deliveries of food, timber and machinery from the East are still not coming through satisfactorily. Only the most short-sighted sympathiser, giving the most exaggerated weight to the wish of Western Germans to keep up their steel output and to reunite the whole country, could find an excuse for this sudden change of front. The present price of " co-operation " between Eastern and Western Zones is plain enough—a forfeiture of political freedom, submission to Com- munist leadership, and a subordination even of economic gains to the pressure to send goods further east on terms the Russians can dictate. The recent interference with traffic between Berlin and the West, with its central object of conserving supplies of steel in East Germany, was surely a plain enough indication of the Russian willingness to apply illegal pressure. The visit to Russia of Herr Ullbricht, the Deputy Prime Minister of East Germany, and the persistent threats of a Whitsun putsch in Berlin, are surely a sufficient warning to the Germans of the West not to play with fire. It seems that there are plenty of Germans both inside and outside the Bonn Government who are willing to revive the old game of playing off the Eastern against the Western Powers. Such willingness springs from the illusion that Germany can be the winner in such a game—an illusion which the Russians are perfectly ready to foster. But the fact remains that what the West Germans really need is a closer concentration on realities—not on illusions.
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