7 DECEMBER 1951, Page 2

U.N.O. and German Unity

One more road which the Soviet delegation at the Assembly has blocked, this timeihrough the agency of M. Malik, is that lead- ing to the appointment of a United Nations Commission to decide whether conditions in East and West Germany are such as to permit genuinely free _elections for an all-Germany parliament to be held. Since M. Malik rejects this proposal, it is clear that the East German Government will reject it. It was at the instance of Dr. Adenauer that Britain,the United States and France brought the proposal before the Assembly as a riposte to the East German proposal of elections unaccompanied by an inspection, but it is hard to suppose that the Chancellor would really welcome such elections at the present moment. If they were held, and were fairly conducted, the Communists in Eastern Germany would no doubt be reduced to, political impotence nationally (though they might control some eastern Liinder); but there would be a con- siderable probability of the Social Democrats in the east being sufficiently numerous to give Dr. Schumacher a lead over the present Government coalition or any modification of it. and put the Social Democratic leader in office. . In that case the hope of a German contribution to a European Army, on which Dr. Adenauer sets great store, would vanish, for Dr. Schumacher is an embittered opponent of any such plan. It looks as though Western Germany would have to be integrated in Western Europe before German reunion comes in sight.