The Wilmington morning star., 1946-09-14
MORE ABOUT
MATTER OF FACT
UrD nHH Mann AHyr
FROM PAGE ONE

through the wall and loaded it on a
flat car for Russia. AS can be i'm
agined these childishly greedy
methods resulted in the transfer
nation of about 80 per cent of the
initial loot into unsalvageable junk.
1t was not, however, until the
industry Of the Soviet zone of Ger
many had been partly crippled,
that planners in the Kremlin real
lied they could get more in anoth-
er way. They now leave the ma
chimes where they are, and where
skilled labor and spare parts are
also obtainable, to produce goods
for the Soviet Union in Germany.
All industry in the Soviet zone
has been "nationalized," which
means that it has been put in
charge of trusted officials OF the
Communist-dominated Unity party,
except that in certain cases Rus
sian title to especially valuable
properties has been established.
The whole area is being run as a
sort Of gigantic forced labor camp
to produce for tn Soviet Union. In
the armament industry and all re-
lated industries like Zeiss, the en-
tire output goes to Russia. And in
the field Of consumers goods, the
Russian share is between go and
30 per cent. The following figures
from a secret planning order is
sued by Marshal Zhukov for the
division Of this years production
give some notion of how much is
being taken and how much is be-
ing left behind:
Cotton textiles, 81, 400, 900 meters
Russia, 1900, 900 meters Germany;
Wooden goods. H., 900, 900 meters
Russia, 1900, 900 meters Germany;
shoes. 1,4s5. 900 pairs Russia. 3oo,.
600 pairs Germany; watches, $780,
900 to Russia. 10. 900 to Germany:
sugar, 121, 900 tons Russia, rs, 900
tons Germany: potatoes, lat, 900
tons Russia, BAT. 900 tons Germany.
AS will be noted immense guam
titles even of essential food stuffs
r being taken. Furthermore, the
production goals shown above are
far above the capabilitv of indus
try in the Soviet zone. The Soviets
take their cut first. and thus what
the Germans actually receive is
much less than Marshal Zhukov's
planning figures. . Finally, even in
the food stuff field, productive ca
pacity has been heavily damaged
both by PREPARATIONS removals and
by the Soviet land reform.
In flat disregard of the Potsdam
agreement, fourteen of the best
beet sugar factories and the vital
potash-producing Deutsche Solvay
Vyerke have been dismantled and
taken as Preparations. And the land
reform has cut output by %purposely
limiting each farmer to a small,
uneconomic acreage, in order to
make all farmers totally dependent
on the politically dominated farm
machinery and fertilizer coopera-
tives.
For these reasons, contrary to
the general assumption, it is al
most certain that the feeding level
in the Soviet zone is already below
that in the west. The Soviet ration
cards promise higher ration than
ours, but in practice no one but
party members and other favored
personnel gets what is on the card.
Food will become carce still with
the steep further decline of pro-
ductivity in the zone which is now
setting in. The cause of this de-
cline is the shortage of Jaw ma
~terials and especially steel. zonal
steel production is only 90, 900 tons
a quarter. The western zones pro-
vide the soviets with 100, 900 tons
more in exchange for brown coal.
This quantity Of steel is naturally
utterly inadequate. werhmacht