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Show tX-jx,jJx:,.wmA " Ati.-,.Ze:.. .t J. ... 7.,.. ..... -.J Allied Occupation of . Germany Thankless Job Methods for Restoring Normalcy to Reich Meet With Criticism From Smaller Liberated Nations of Europe. By BAUKHAGE News Analyst and Commentator. WNV Service, 1G16 I 8treet N. W., Washington, D. C. With the fanfare accompanying the first steps of the occupation of Japan now dying on the Pacific breezes, some hints of the heavy responsibilities responsibili-ties of Uncle Sam's European problems begin to appear. Already the small nations which were occupied by the Axis and whose peoples resisted the Nazi-Fascist yoke are being heard from in a rising chorus of complaint and criticism against the Allies. Belgium and Holland are perhaps loudest in their charges of what they feel is discrimination against them In favor of their former enemy-neighbor, enemy-neighbor, but voices are raised as far away as Greece and Yugoslav-la, Yugoslav-la, which say that Germany and Italy should not receive material assistance on the same basis as the once-occupied countries. The charges from Holland are the most specific. The Netherlands government gov-ernment has presented claims for a share In both the external and Internal In-ternal assets of Germany as reparations. repara-tions. The note handed the Allies asks for Immediate return of loot now within the occupied zones In Germany, which the Dutch claim is listed and Identifiable. They say that parts of their country were stripped bare of capital and consumer goods; that some of the former, such as machinery, Is now being used to the advantage of the Germans. In addition to the formal protest, Col. J. C. A. Faure, deputy chief of staff of the Netherlands civil affairs administration, was quoted in London Lon-don as saying that the Allied military mili-tary governors were playing into German hands when they prevented the Dutch, Belgians and French from reclaiming immediately machinery ma-chinery and other property stolen from them by the Nazi armies. He said that protests to SHAEF. while it existed, were fruitless "and when the new child (the British and American occupation organization) was born it was too young." He explained ex-plained it was understandable that since the Allied commanders in their respective spheres have their hands full in creating order out of chaos in Germany, each wants to do a good job, and for that reason doesn't want to jlose any material aid that will help. But that doesn't provide much comfort for the Dutch or Belgian farmer who looks across the frontier fron-tier and sees a German peasant driving driv-ing home a cow which he swears he knows is his by Its crumpled horn and the spot on its rump. The same applies to the factory owner who is positive his property is turning wheels in Germany. Army Aim: Speed Job From sources in close touch with conditions in Germany I heard this example which pretty well echoes Dutch explanations but doesn't solve their problem. For instance: An Allied Al-lied commander moves into a German Ger-man town. One of the first things he wants is light and power. His men repair the power plant. Later it is claimed that the main dynamo was stolen from Holland. That is not the commander's affair. Lighting Light-ing the town is. His job is to restore re-store the place as nearly as possible to a self-supporting community. But that is not the" end, for the restoration of European economy as a whole is of vital importance and naturally those nations which suffered suf-fered under the German heel feel they should have first call on the sinews of normality, especially when those sinews were torn from their body economic by Nazi hands. On this score there have already been rumblings of complaint against the American occupation. Already the wheels of German factories are turning in the American zone. The purpose is to manufacture goods and provide services required to keep the occupation forces going and to supply the minimum needs of the community. The Germans have to have shovels and hoes and rakes if they are to till their fields and cultivate their gardens in order to get enough food to live on. These tools, if made and sold, would be in competition with goods the Americans make. But there are not enough ships to carry a vast supply of such products across the Atlantic and besides ' r : L..,.,l..zxxa America has a big waiting demand of her own. Therefore, In many cases German capital may be used to resuscitate German factories and Germany money will buy its products. prod-ucts. The Americans are doing everything ev-erything to facilitate this type of reconstruction re-construction (light industry and manufacture of household equipment). equip-ment). If necessary and they can do it, they will see that a missing shaft or flywheel is obtained somehow. some-how. They permit the Germans to combine partly . damaged factories into one complete plant. They encourage en-courage reconversion of certain plants from wartime to civilian use. It so happens that of all the occupied occu-pied zones the one which the Americans Ameri-cans control is capable of creating most easily a. balanced economy. It is a land of small towns and villages, vil-lages, most of which were not important im-portant enough to have been bombed. It is a land of cattle and of orchards, of fields and meadows. It Is highly probable that with American organization to guide the people this area will be the first to regain a fairly normal life. If we don't help the Germans, we'll be criticized for fumbling; the occupation will be made more difficult. dif-ficult. If we do help, we will be under heavy criticism from the peoples peo-ples of less fortunate areas and charged with treating the former enemy better than we treat our friends. The British operate in a far less favorable area, for they have the bombed-out Ruhr on their hands and they control a territory whose existence exist-ence depended on industries which no longer exist and which will not j be permitted to exist in the future. Such factories as they can operate to make the community self-supporting rriay well be equipped in part with stolen machinery. Russ Strip German Industry The pattern of Russian occupation is quite different. The Russians know what they are doing in their zone. They are treating the "little people" with kindliness, assuring them that they need have no fear of oppression. oppres-sion. Their apparent intention is to divide up the land and give the Germans Ger-mans a chance to win a livelihood from the soil, meanwhile giving them a thorough indoctrination in the advantages of the Soviet form of government. At the same time they are removing every movable piece of machinery to Russia. Meanwhile, Poland will be allowed to scrape together such German agricultural ag-ricultural equipment as she can salvage sal-vage in East Prussia. Disease is rampant in Poland; there are shortages short-ages in all kinds of equipment. The Germans took most of the agricultural agricul-tural machinery; much of the rest was destroyed and the whole country coun-try wrecked. The other next-door neighbors have not even such an opportunity to recuperate their losses. And so the Americans will probably prob-ably bear the onus of helping the former for-mer enemy most of all, although their only intent is to carry out the program agreed upon by the Allies. America wants no loot. ' She does want all she can get in the way of important formulae; all she can learn of German methods; all of the ideas which can be adapted successfully success-fully to American life. Already some valuable scientific information has been obtained and in many cases the German scientists, with that disinterested attitude characteristic character-istic of their profession, are quite as willing to work in an American laboratory lab-oratory as they were in one run by the Nazis. America also wants to finish her occupation job and get out. A part of that job is to make the Germans self-supporting. Thus, it is quite likely that another an-other complaint will be raised that we are forming too friendly a bond with people of a nation the world came to detest so thoroughly. In the years 1940-43, a total of 7,851 persons were killed in farm accidents in the U. S. Machinery caused 47 per cent of the deaths, livestock 20 per cent, and all other causes 33 per cent. Wisconsin was the most dangerous state for farm workers, with 502 killed in four years; and New York had 456 accidental acci-dental farm deaths. |