The Treatment of Germans
Announcements issued by Field-Marshal Montgomery in the British zone and General Eisenhower in the American show that the second stage in the treatment of the German people is about to open. The first stage was the establishment of military control, the disarmament of Germany, the destruction of Nazi organisations, and arrangements for feeding and housing the people, and getting them back to work. That stage is by no means ended, but the Allied commanders, in accordance with Allied policy, propose to lose no time in providing facilities for the Germans to help themselves, and take an active part in their own rehabilitation. Their proposals are clearly based on the idea that the initiative and organising power of Germans can only be exercised if they are allowed reasonable free- dom, and that they should begin to lay the foundations for their own future self-government. It is proposed to relax the restrictions on the freedom of the Press, to encourage the formation of free trade unions and democratic political parties, to allow public meetings, and, as soon as is feasible, to restore local government on demo- cratic lines. The same principles will be applied in reorganising the judicial system. The people, while being offered considerable freedom, are at the same time warned to expect a hard winter, and exhorted to realise that they can only avoid extremities of hardship if they work well and organise their own activities. The Allied plan does not aim at the depression of the German people. On the contrary, it seeks to provide that they should be able to make their contribution to their own and Europe's recovery. If the best educa- tion in democracy is the practice of democracy, then they are being given the beginnings of education. If they abuse their opportunities, Allied control will step in. If they do not, so much the better for them. The two Allied commanders have made a sound beginning, and it is important that they have made it in the same way at the same moment. It would be better still if we had the assurance that Russian plans were based on the same principles ; but it is due to the Russians to state that in some of the measures taken they anticipated the western Allies.
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