The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1944-05-18
Terms OfPeace

AS the decisive battle of Europe gets under
way with the laundering assaults of the Allied
air armadas and the about offensive in Italy,
the European Advisory Commission created
by the Moscow Conference is completing the
draft OF the Allied victory terms which pro-
vide grim background to struggle that
has still to reach its climax. According to
reports accepted as reliable, these terms call
for war to the hilt until the German armies
are ready for unconditional surrender on the
battlefield. There will be no negotiations, no
armistice; there will be no German armies
left to march home with blaring bands and
flying colors to set up for new German gen.
GRAFTON the fraudulent claim that it had never
been defeated and LOST the war only because
traitors on the home front stabbed it in the
back. The German armies must surrender as
prisoners of war to await disposal by the Allies
while Germany is occupied by the victorious
Allied troops. And the Allies may be ex-
pected to see to it that there will return
to Germany neither the men nor the facilities
for the formation of new secret or open pri-
vate armies to start agitation for a new war
and a new Hitler movement.
These terms are still subject to approval
by the American, British and Russian gov
ernments but, since they have been fornu-
lated in constant consultation with them, such
approval is not in much doubt. In fact as
understood in London they have been drafted
they will be the only terms to be conveyed
to the German people by all Allied propagan-
da, including, presumably, the Russian What
ever diplomatic offensves the Allies do en-
gage in will be directed primarily toward the
neutrals to plug the last holes in the Allied
blockade, and toward Germanys satellites to
get them out of the war. And even to the
latter no better terms are being offered than
Allied leniency in proportion to their contri-
button to Allied victory
The terms finally shatter the hopes which
Nazi leaders holding out to their deluded
people that in the end the Allies will still con-
sent to negotiated peace which will not only
save some of Germany's loot but will also
lay the foundation for a new career OF con-
quest in a Europe enfeebled by German dep
relations And in so far they aim at the
complete destruction of the German military
machine and master race idea they will un-
doubtedly find general approval by world
aroused by German barbarities. But there is
no blinking the fact that as long these are
the only terms the Germans know they will
continue to fight with the courage of desper-
alton which prefers the known terror OF the
present to the even greater terror OF the I'M
known future, and Goebbel's propa ganda
must be expected to make the most of that
theme, BY the same TOKEN long as that
condition prevails the Allies, too will have to
brace themselves for a far more bitter strug-
gle than that which marked the last stages
of the last war, when Wilson'S Founteen Points
were as effective in causing the final collapse
of Germany as Allied bullets
It is true that Wilson's Fourteen Points did
not begin to affect German fighting morale
until the German armies had been defeated
in the field. And it is perhaps also true that
there is element in Germany at the pres
ent capable of revolt. Nevertheless, Wilson'S
Fourteen Points began to work among the
German masses long before the military de-
feat, and the submission of terms which leave
the German people hope for survival should
produce a similar effect
! For that reason it should be made plain by
the Allied leadership that the terms of I'm
conditional surrender now drafted are mill
tary terms applicable to the battlefield, and
will be formulated in connection with the So
luton of the postwar problems that are next
on the agenda of the Advisory Commission.
They will not be the comparatively lenient
terms Of the Fourteen Points. and few Ger
mans would expect such terms. They will not
even be the terms of the Atlantic Charter
which has been made inapplicable to Ger
many, at least as matter of German fright"
But they will and must be in line with Prime
Minister Churchill'S assurance that "uncon-
dlt1onal surrender does not mean that the
German people will be enslaved or DESTROY
ed, which is also in conformity with the
| needs and the conscience of both the Allies
! anc the world. And in such an assurance