Sir: I have been reading in the Frankfurter Allge- meine
Zeitung of 12 August that you recently published (II August) on the front page of your newspaper an article reading 'Die verantwortungs- losen Deutschen,' which could be translated 'The unreliable or the reckless Germans.'
I have been in England for a while, my com- pany is doing business with English firms and I know the attitude of the English toward the Con- tinent, particularly toward Germany. We know, it has developed to be a custom in England to be 'beastly about Germans.' We are used to that for a long while.
However, in this particular case of your article I feel this is hypocrisy at its peak. I do not deny you the right of blaming any other country for anything. However, if a person or a country wishes to be considered to be fair, one should in the first place think of the own negative aspects and then judge somebody else.
May I remind you that it was England that only a few months ago was breaking all promises made to the EFTA countries and without any warn- ing introduced an additional duty to prevent im- porting, and by doing so England violated also the regulations of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (war). In this period, when England was obviously not very reliable, she had to rely financially to a very high degree on the 'unreliable and reckless Germany.'
Furthermore, may I remind you that England, as far as a common market is concerned, pro- ceeded as follows: 1957 she did not only not support the Treaty of Rome, but she tried to destroy it, in pursuit of the old policy of balance of power. Then England founded the European Free Trade Area, made promises to all Common- wealth and European Parra nations and when it did not work out she left the other nations in the lurch and suddenly claimed she wanted to enter the Common Market, taking it for granted that just the unreliable Germany should be the country that has to support this new English move.
Much to my surprise, the German government and German people in general support the English entry.
However, you must bear in mind that when people get aware of the fact that England will continue to show this ridiculous attitude towards Germany they may come to the conclusion that it might be wiser to follow de Gaulle's opinions, i.e.. England is not a European country, it is an 'island,' awkward and funny, and it could be advisable to keep England out as long as possible.
I think that you are not entitled to blame Ger- many for economic measures such as introduc- tion of the Mehrwertsteuer (this kind of tax, which you do not seem to understand, leads to the fact that an English competitor can offer machines tools to the user at an actually lower price than we can after 1 January 1968, without changing his f.o.b. price).
Furthermore, you have no right to blame Ger- many for not having a high rate of inflation. To my knowledge it was and will be high enough.
Publishing an article in a way you did is not only an intervention of a foreigner, but seems also to be slander and libel, if not a sort of black- mail. In Germany we have a certain expression in journalism, it is called Brunnenvergiftung.
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