Dr. Adenauer's Problems
The New Year faces the West German Federal Government with a number of difficult problems. The situation is confused and dan- gerous. The internal demand for unity is growing stronger, and considerable diplomacy must go to the drafting of the West German reply to the proposal of Herr Grotewohl, the East German Prime Minister, for conversations pointing to unification. Dr. Adenauer will among other things no doubt observe, as he is fully entitled to do, that there is a considerable difference in status and importance, and still more in material resources, between Western Germany with its 45 million inhabitants and Eastern Germany with 18. In his New Year's message Dr. Adenauer has declared his aims to be unity and liberty. The two must be kept inseparable ; it would be fatal to buy the first at price of the second. At the same time the question of Germany's contribution to Western defence needs the most careful handling. Russia's policy is obvious—to prevent It, if possible, by protest and menace, and, failing that, to postpone
a decision by creating the conviction that the proposed Four-Power conversations would be imperilled, if not definitely sabotaged, by any fait accompli in the matter of West German association with Atlantic Treaty defence plans.• Here the Soviet Union is on strong ground. Important as the organisation of West German contingents is, it is not so much a matter of urgency—if only because the arms and equipment at present available are far from adequate even for the projected Allied forces—that any shadowy prospect there may be of successful Four-Power discussions should be lightly sacrificed for it. That is one reason for getting down to business with the preliminaries for the meeting of Foreign Ministers forthwith.
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