The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1945-04-01

going down to defeat will bring
about a condition of affairs which
has no precedent in the settlement
of other great wars. When Ma
poleon fell, a legitimate govern
ment replaced him and was able
to participate at the Congress of
Vienna in the settlement of Eu-
rope. When the Kaiser fell, Ger
man republican government came
at once into power. But Hitler can
have no immediate German sue
cessor. There can be no German
government because none will eX-
ist, and therefore, willy-nilly the
victorious Allies have to govern
Germany.
The Allied military government,
which is to be established in what
is left of Berlin, will have at the
top a council or commission OF
four military commanders-Brit.
ish, Soviet, French, American
and each will have deputy. Be-
low them there are to be ten ex.
ecutive divisions corresponding to
the ten departments Of the cen
trail government. Except the one
dealing wi h political affairs,
which is to be headed by Allied
civilian officials, each of these di
visions will be directed by group
of four Allied officers. The operat-
ing departments under each OF
these Allied control groups will be
manned by Germans, de-Nazified
it is hoped as far as possible.
The policies of the Allied Mill
tary Government will be deter.
mined by the Allies-in political
matters through the mechanism OF
the European advisory commits
sion, in economic through the rep
arations commission, and overall
no doubt through continued diplo-
matte consultation in London,
Moscow, Paris, and Washington,
supplemented by regular meetings
of the foreign ministers and &C.
casional meetings of the chiefs of
state.
Some such arrangement as this
is unavoidable. Germany has to
be governed. Since Hitler has sue
ceeded in making it impossible for
Germans TO take over, the victors
have to take over, and they had
only two alternatives. The one
was to carve up Germany into
four zones and let each occupying
power govern as it sees fit in it's
own zone. The other was to make
the experiment of combined Al
lied government which would, at
least as respects national affairs,
apply the same policies through
out Germany. For all sorts of rea-
sons, paramount among them the
perpetuation of Allied unity, the
cumbersome and complicated sys-
tenn of combined government
has been decided upon.
1t would, of course, be enor-
mously difficult for any one under
any conceivable system to govern
Germany effectively after twelve
years of Nazism and five years Of
war. The condition of Germany is
so abnormal that we must not be
tempted to judge the Allied gov
eminent, much less allow the Ger
mans to judge it, by normal stand
ards. The object of the Allied gov
eminent is not to provide the Ger
mans with good government
which they will like but to dis
arm them, to demilitarize them,
to punish their criminal leaders,
to make them repair some of the
damage they have done, to force
them to reorganize SO that they
cease to be economically FREEDOM
inant in Europe, and in their re-
duced station to learn how to gov
ern themselves in a way that is
harmless to their neighbors.
To carry out these purposes res
olutely over a number of years
the Allies, most directly con-
cerned, are not sufficiently organ
lied. The fact that there is no