Soviet Strategy
Sut,—In your leading article on Soviet strategy you state that it may be 'taken for granted that " Russia contemplates equal representation for the 18-million population of Eastern Germany and the 48-million population of Western Germany . . " in the all-German Government to be formed for the purpose of accepting the peace treaty to be prepared by the four Powers at the conference proposed in the recent Russian Note.
I submit that there is nothing in the Note to warrant such an assumption. What the Note says is that " the conference should dis- cuss, in the first place, such important issues as a peace treaty with Germany and the formation of an all-German Government." The question of how such a Government should be formed is left open for discussion. You appear to admit this, as later in your article you refer to the impossibility of starting fresh negotiations with " an all- German Government constituted no one knows how. . . "
As regards the chrOnological order of the question on the agenda proposed by the Russians, which you consider " the Allies cannot possibly agree to," I would submit that the Russian sequence is a logical one. The Note refers to the Potsdam Agreement under which a peace settlement for Germany was to be prepared " to be accepted " by the. Government of Germany " when a Government suitable for that purpose " will have been established. A freely elected Govern- ment might not be " suitable " since there could be no guarantee that such a Government would accept the treaty prepared. It follows then that in the first place a Government " suitable " for accepting the peace treaty or " settlement " prepared by the four Powers must be formed or appointed. If, subsequently, the German electorate were to return to power a Government that repudiated the treaty prepared by the four Powers and accepted by a Government considered " suitable " by those Powers, then the responsibility for the repudiation would rest squarely on the whole German people.—Yours faithfully,
5 Smith Terrace, Chelsea, S.W3.
H. R. PELLY.
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