Evening star., 1944-03-05

Those sections of Winston Church
ills recent speech to Parliament
dealing with the postwar treatment
Of a conquered Germany have at.
tracted wide attention in ofIicia,
Washington. AS invasion plan:
move on toward their climax the
problem grows daily less academic
and already a large corps Of experts
in the State Department are study.
ing the policies followed by the
Allies after the last war in an effort
to chart a course that will avoid
their mistakes.
The Prime Minister indicated
clearly that he does not consider the
Allies bound by anything in the At
lantic Charter to respect the presen.
territorial boundaries of the Reich
This is significant in view of the re-
cent Russian suggestion that Poland
might be compensated for any terri
tory lost to the Soviet Union in the
east by receiving land In Eas,
Prussia-an idea that found backing
in London when it was first ad-
vanced month ago.
But Mr.. Churchill went on to say
that unconditional surrender does
not mean that the Germans will be
enslaved or destroyed. Uncondi.
tional surrender means that the
victors will have a free hand. II
does not mean that they are entitled
to behave in a barbarous manner
not that they wish to blot out Ger
many from among the nations OF
Europe"
War Seeds in Economies.
The Prime Minister'S line OF
thought appears to fit in with that
OF a school of American economists
who long have held that the rise OF
Hitlerism and the seeds Of q new
war were not contained in the dis
sections Of the Versailles
treaty-which were not strictly en-
forced any way-nor even in its ter
ritorial provisions, but rather in its
economic policies.
A study Of Hitler's speeches during
the years he was struggling for
power shows that he had little to
say about Germany's loss of Alsace-
Lorraine to France, although he did
rant often over the Polish corridor
But he constantly preached to the
Germans the theme that Versailles
had saddled them with a burden OF
debt which made it impossible for
them to hope for a decent future,
He stirred up in them a feeling of
futility and revolt. And when. in
1892, Germany was caught with the
rest OF the world in the crash of an
unsound economic structure, the
Nazi vote mounted to 1900, 900,
which enabled the former Austrian
corporal to exert a power that made
short work of the Won Papen and
Schleicher regimes and, in the fol-
lowing spring, to bludgeon his way
into power.
John Gunther, who was a personal
witness to the tragic stupidities and
that paved the way to
the chancellorship for Hitler, sum-
med up the situation tersely when
he wrote:
Hard times bred both the violence
OF Hitler and the apathy of his op-
ponents. The Nazis fed on other
peoples hunger"
France Dominated Peace.
Hitler convinced the German peo-
pie that the Allies were trying to do
what Mr.. Churchill says they def
n1tely will not do this time-"blot
out Germany from among the ma
tlons OF Europe" by measures de-
signed to stifle their economic life
At the end Of the last war France
dominating the peace conference
was determined that Germany
should pay the entire cost of the
war and repair the tremendous
physical damage done to the oc-
cupied areas. And although the
sanity Of British and American
leaders curbed the extreme demands
OF the French. the Germans were
required to yield tremendous uuan-
titles Of goods in payment In kind
and monetary reparations finally
were fixed in 1921 at 132, 900, ,000, ,0OO
gold marks Approximately $50, ,0O0,-
100000 at then-existing rates of ex-
change.
In addition, the Germans were
required to surrender all their mer.
chant ships of more than 1000 tons