The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1945-05-25

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lean delegation to the Preparations
Commission has just left Wash
ington. The control councils are
not yet in Berlin and Vienna
There is as yet, therefore, no com
mon policy and not even common
knowledge of what is going on in
the different military areas. There
has been certain amount of free
newspaper reporting in the Amer
lean area, little or none in Inc
British and Soviet area.
Until the control councils and
the Preparations Commission are
operating, the action of each army
will necessarily be ''unilateral ;,
and there can be no adequate Off.
cial, much less free and public
information of what is going IN
all over Germany.
The long delay in setting up the
Preparations Commission is almost
certainly due to the difficulty Of
getting men appointed and deci-
sions taken in the period when
President Roosevelt's health was
failing and during the political re-
adjustment in Washington after
his death. The delay in setting I'm
the control councils is due to other
reasons, some of which at least in
volve matters of high policy that
President Roosevelt would have
resolved, and that only President
Truman can now resolve.
The delay in Vienna has not
been caused by an undecided quest
ton of high policy. The agreement
calls for the division of Vienna into
four districts, each to be the head
quarters of one of the Allied mill.
tary missions. The question has
been whether Vienna meant the
city proper, as the Soviets have
maintained, or the so-called eau
which is larger district, a kind
OF Greater Vienna, and includes
enough land to provide separate
airfields for each delegation to
come and 60 freely, and recreation
grounds for its troops. This dis
agreement is by way Of being set
tied, and it ought not to be too
long before General Mark Clark
goes to Vienna as the American
member Of the control council
and General Truscott establishes
himself as commanding general of
the American force of occupation
In Austria.
The delay about the control
council in Berlin is not, it would
appear, due to a dispute with the
Soviet government. 1t has been
due, almost certainly, to the fact
that the western Allies have not
yet been able to fulfill all the con-
ditions, agreed to in advance,
under which they can exercise
their right to 60 to Berlin.
The agreement for the control
council rests on the understanding
that each Of the four army COM
manders who compose it would
have equal and separate status.
But General Eisenhower is still
supreme commander, and his
headquarters staff, known as S. H.
A. E. F.. exercises combined au-
thority over the British, French,
and American armies, and over
all officials dealing with the Ger
man surrender. and occupation. It
has, Of course, always been the I'M
Outstanding that S. H. A. E. F.
would be dissolved after the sur
render. Until it is dissolved, the
control council would consist not
OF four commanders but of one
Russian commander and a COM
bination of three western COM
manders. This is almost certainly
the reason why we have not vet
felt We could tell the Soviets we
were prepared to come to Berlin
and be sure they would welcome us.
The complication task of Our re-
dep1oyment within Germany and
away from Europe is no doubt an
important reason for maintaining
the combined command under
General Eisenhower. If this were
the only reason, if there were not
also considerations of high policy
from London, frank negotiation
with the Russians might persuade
them that it was in their interest
as well as ours to set up the con-
troll council even though, for a
short period, S. H. A. E. F. con-
tinues to operate.
But certainly there can be no
doubt that the control council
must be set up very soon, and that
no consideration should be al.
lowed to impose much more delav.
To have no central control, no or
gan Of direct negotiation and Of
official inform alton, when enor-
NOUS armies are facing one an
other, is much too dangerous a
situation to be risked much longer.
For it places the peace OF Europe
and Of the world at the mercy OF
incidents over which the highest
authorities in London, Moscow
Paris and Washington, might have
no control.
Copyright, 1915, New York Tibrne
Inc.)
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