German Complaints
The statements of the British and American chairmen of the Anglo-American Control Office on irregularities in the collection and distribution of the German harvest have been so plain that there can be no doubt as to where the blame lies. Once again produce is being retained on farms or disappearing into the black market in great quantities, and the most flagrant acts of regional selfishness or contempt for the bi-zonal food administration have taken place. There has been an open distribution of extra meat rations in Bavaria and large-scale evasion of the meat-rationing regulations in Hesse. In Hesse and in Schleswig-Holstein surplus potatoes have been distributed to prevent their transfer to zones having a deficit. And yet still there is a ready acceptance in this country of wild tales of the complete failure of the German potato crop. It is, of course, certain that drought and the shortage of fertilisers have adversely affected German production, but the authorities' view of the total situation is sufficiently indicated in General MacCready's statement that the so-called surplus countries cannot be expected to subsidise theft, black market operations, or inefficient administration. When the Bavarian Minister of Food finds it expedient (and possible) to refuse to allow inspectors from the bi-zonal food administration to look at the Bavarian potato crop the time has come to strengthen the legal powers of the Frankfurt authorities and to look twice at every German complaint of food shortage. The Anglo-American authorities are riddled with faults, but there are some irregularities for which they cannot be blamed for ever. In fact, that part of the blame for the delay in German economic recovery which rests with the occupying authori- ties belongs mostly in the industrial field, where the confusion of policy results in one postponement after another of the vital announcement on the factories to be dismantled in the British zone. And even here the Control Office cannot be held responsible for every wild rumour arising among the German population.
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