The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1945-11-06
FIRST THINGS FIRST

In our effort to settle the war
we are making the great strateg-
ical error which, happily, we avoid.
ed in waging the war. We are dis.
persing our strength on sideshoWs
in the secondary theaters instead
of concentrating first of all on the
central and primary objective. In
Europe, thanks largely to Gen.
eraI Marshall, we never lost sight
of the fact that the war would be
won only when the German Army
was defeated, and holding fast to
that conception we refused to let
our forces be diverted to Smaller
indecisive campaigns in the Bal
kans and the Near East, however
plausible and pressing politically,
which did not bring US to grips with
the central power of Germany.
But since Potsdam, and indeed
in considerable degree since Yalta,
we have lost sight of the main is
sue in Europe, which is the Ger
man settlement, and have drifted
into secondary disputes all around
the edges of Europe. We may have
been right as rain about such ques.
tons as Trieste, the Italian colo.
MES, the Romanian government.
and the Bulgarian elections; they
were nevertheless not the ques.
tons which deserved to come first,
and the real reason we got no
where in settling them is that
they cannot be settled until a basic
German settlement has been a.
greed to. Many explanations have
been offered for the failure of the
London conference The true ex.
PLANTATION, I submit, is that the
London conference dealt with the
wrong subjects. 1t was like a con-
ference of creditors trying to de-
eide whether John Smith, who has
just been through an earthquake,
a fire and a flood, should pay
$10.72 to his grocer or 1896 to his
butcher. Among the spectators the
biologists Of vegetarianism were
hot for paying the grocer.
Surely it is evident that these
Balkan and eastern European ques-
tons are subordinate to the Ger
man question. How, for example,
can there be elections free from
foreign influence as long as the
Red Army is all over the place?
Yet how can the Red Army with
draw from eastern Europe until
there is a German settlement
which can be enforced without
great unwieldly masses of troops?
How can there be any kind Of
orderly reconstruction on the con-
tinent Of Europe until it is settled
what Germany is to produce, is to
export, and is to import? It is all
very well for Mr.. Bevin, seconded
by Mr.. Byrnes, to protest about
bilateralism between Hungary and
the Soviet Union; but what else can
they expect when they have not
made up their minds about Ger.
many, which was the chief econom.
ic supplier of central Europe?
How would any one 60 about re.
converting the United States to
peace if between the Ohio and the
Mississippi no one knew what it
was possible and what it was per.
Missile to produce, to buy, and
to sell?
General Eisenhower wrote to the
President on Oct. rs reminding
him Of an agreement made last
summer under which the Army
would be relieved of the duty of
governing Germany, the RESPONSE.
bility given to civilians, and the
Army confined to its true func.
tom which is to provide the IRE.
serve force and power" to enforce
regulations and policy. It is a strik-
ing commentary on how these
great matters have been allowed to
drift that a soldier should have to
remind the civil authority about