Evening star., 1944-09-25
Hull Voices Hope
OF Speedy Action on
| Nazi Peace Terms
BY JOHN. M. HIGHTOWER,
Associated Press Stan Writer.


Secretary of State Hull said today
he hoped that high Allied officials.
including officials of the United
States Government, would be able
to come to agreement soon on peace
terms for a defeated Germany.
| He made the comment in response
to request for statement on an
Associated Press report that Presi-
dent Roosevelt's cabinet committee
J on German peace policy was split
over a proposal by Secretary of the
| Treasury Morgenthau that Germany
be converted into an agricultural
nation.
Mr.. Hull is understood to be cool
to the Morgenthau plan and Secre-
tary of War Stimson, the third
member of the committeeS to be
strongly opposed to it.
The Morgenthau plan would strip
Germany of much industrial terri
tory and destroy or give away the
rest of its industries.
Authorizes Quotation.
Mr.. Hull authorized the following
quotation:
The whole question Of dealing
with the postwar German situation
has been receiving attention by each
of the governments most interested
and that includes this Government
and the State Department.
1T would serve no purpose to
say more at this time except that
tho hinIor 0P6nio1c nf
ments concerned will reach mutual
understandings, hope, at an early
stage. 1t is very necessary that
we wait until We know the true
conclusions they reach"
Mr.. Hull made no other comment
but it was notable that he studiouSly
avoided in his prepared statement
any denial of the fact that he
cabinet split has developed and is
still wide open.
Mr.. Morgenthau is reported to-
have considerable support for his
ideas from President Roosevelt, who
discussed them at Quebec with
Prime Minister Churchill.
Pressure for Speed.
There is pressure for speed in ar
irving at some decision on which a
positive American approach to the
problem of Germany's future can be
based. This arises from the fact the
fate of Germany actually is an Al
lied problem and whatever policy is
finally applied will have to be worked
out Jointly with Great Britain and
Russia and in some consultation
with other European countries. no.
tably France.
Mr.. Morgenthau's plan was tossed
into the hopper last month after he
returned from Europe and his dis
cussions with British government
officials in London.
! There he is reported to have found
Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden on
the side of ruthless handling of
Germany after the war. Mr.. Nor
genthau. charging that the War and
State Departments were planning
soft" peace, drew up detailed pro-
gram for control of Germany.
Plan Confuses Experts.
Under this program, Germany
would be stripped of her industries
and reduced from a modern indus
trial state to country of small
farms. Areas such as Silesia on the
east and the Saar on the west would
be given to neighboring nations and
any mines which remained in NOM
lnal German territory would be
plugged up to prevent the Reich |
from again becoming a great war
making state
The emergence of this plan and
its reported White House backing
threw State and War Department
experts, who had been working out
measures on a different policy line,
into confusion.
Their basic assumption appears to
nave been that while Germany
would be reduced in territory by
grants to Poland and France she
would remain an industrial nation. !
They proposed to control her in
dustry and prevent its being used
for future aggression by system OF
bottleneck controls.
'oou "atSh ot dtcSC VhdtildlS.
According to the bottleneck theory.
the United Nations, or a commits
sion acting in their name. would re-
tain firm grasp on such strategic
War-making materials going into
Germany as oil. steel and nitrates.
Some have aSsailed Mr.. Morgen-
thau's plan. in several hot sessions
of representatives of the three de-
partments, as impractical in that it
would not permit Germany to exist
as normal element of Europe's
economic system. They have claimed
that the plan eventually would break
down under economic pressures aris-
ing from the fact that 40 or so mil
lion people remaining in Germany
10 L..