Evening star., 1944-12-17
School for Rule
Governors for Enemy
Trained at Front Line
By Wade Werner.

UNITED STATES 12th ARMY
GROUP HEADQUARTERS R.-Like a
front line college with a middle-a aged
student body, the military Government
training center of the United States 9th
Army graduates" detachments which
go out to govern newly occupied areas of
Germany
Most of the several hundred officers
and enlisted men preparing to Jump of
for specific localities in Hitler's Reich
had had previous training in the United
States and England. At this center,
within earshot of battle, they are
joined as teams which will move into
the actual job of running German COM
munities.
Some of the men now in training are
veterans of the last wars army Of oc-
cupation. For example, Maj. r. J..
Eaton of Boston, was with the Yanks in
Coblenz. Then, the Germans greeted
the Americans's arrival with flowers,
quartered them with German families
and ate and drank with them. Frat
ernization was the keynote. Life was
comfortable In undamaged towns.
Fraternization Taboo.
This time the outlook is grim. Detach-
ments move into battered and some
times practically ruined towns, parts of
which still may be held or shelled by
the Germans. Fraternization is taboo.
The orders are to govern fairly but with
hard hand.
Accurate shooting ability at times NAV
be as important as accurate information
on civil affairs so the men are trained
in pistol craftsmanship by two crack
shots, 1t. Col Joseph Hensel of Los
Angeles, an engineer, and Capt. Boise
Smith, former assistant chief of police
in Dallas. Tex, who was noted for his
intelligence services in the Aleutians
before he came to Europe.
Detachments are trained for the ad-
ministration of towns, cities, counties
and provinces. The largest groups
80 officers and 36 enlisted men-are
appointed to govern whole provinces.
In one detachment being trained to
administer an important industrial area
Capt. r. w. Holmsted of Bloomington,
Ind, a former professor of educa-
tion at Indiana University, is studying
methods of purging that areas schools
of Nazi elements. Others in his unit
include:
Maj. Richard Rard Of Port Heuneme,
Calf, former director of the Walnut
Growers Association, in charge of food
and agriculture; 1t. j. j. Odom, Bir-
mingham, Ala, a highway engineer,
the transportation authority; It. Col.
William Levin of Portland, Oreg., for
mer assistant State health officer, public
health expert; Capts. L. L. Rolstein,
Milwaukee attorney, and M. B. Satter-
field, Washington housing administra-
tion official, labor procurement and re-
lations specialists; 1t. Joseph Shaw of
Boston, Mass, lawyer, property con-
troll officer; Maj. George Lafray, for
mer Seattle insurance company off,
cial, public finance and fiscal insti-
tuition administrator, and Maj. K. s.
Dawson, Bellingham, Wash, superior
court judge who just has been reelected
to that office, the officer in charge of
political intelligence and public re-
lations.
Throughout the training continued
drill in the German language is stressed,
but determination as a means of learn
ing the language is out. Maj. w. H.
Brown, New York attorney, is the Ger
man professor.
Intricate study about specific COM
munities to be governed takes up large
share of the training. The latest air
reconnaissance maps, showing how
much of the town still is standing, are
gone over carefully and the administra-
tive units acquire thorough Under
standing of the resources, history, social
institutions, customs, religion and
politics of their prospective areas as
well as the administration Of their own
detachments and supreme Allied COM
mand policies concerning the treatment
of Germans by the military government
Enlisted men assigned to the detach-
ments mainly serve as Interpreters,
clerks, truck drivers, auditors, court re-
porters. craftsmen and the like.
Distributed by Associated Prsss)