Evening star., 1946-08-01

MUNICH Of the three states, or
laenderS, over which our occupa ton
forces in Germany have jurisdiction
the largest is Bavaria, from which
sprang the Nazi movement. Ger
man resistance is dead and 90 per
cent of the thinking of the people
is concerned with food. shelter and
the effort to teach democl y must
bear fruit If the occupati lion OBJ
jectiveS are to succeed.
At the suggestion of the military
governor. Brig. Gen. Walter j.
Muller, the group OF American
editors with whom T made a recent
survey sat down at conference
with the Bavarian council of min
listers and political leaders for a
discussion of the new democratic
Germany.
The talk promptly turned to free
dom of the press. The new German
cabinet, while processing to under
stand free press, still is not above
dropping an occasional directive"
TO the newspapers. Certain restric-
tions by the military government,
we'll without the bounds of freedom,
also complicate the problem. In
Justice TO the military government
the security angle must be consid-
cred. The 19 newspapers being OPP
Grated for the German population OF
Bavaria are run by screened. licensed
editors.
The first complaint was that the
American authorities insist that the
papers treat all political parties
activities as news in an objective
manner. To the German. reared
on a party press. this is confusing
He wants his political thinking
served up in his newspapers. Then.
Denazifcation Minister Schmitt
found fault with refusal to print in
fun his instructions regarding his
program. He had made this pointed
suggestion TO the German editors.
The editors, rather timidly. it
seemed 10 us, had refused to follow
the instructions. but were looking
to the military government for
support of their position.
Feared Loss of Schmitt.
The military government was
keeping hands off while its political
advisers were inwardly juoilant that
the seed had sprouted and that
editors had begun to take advantage
of the democratic right 10 criticize
government. Privately. military
goyel nment officials feared they
might lose Mr. Schmitt. whose work
at screening suspected former Nazi
leaders has been most successful.
One German editor has suffered the
penalty of having his paper reduced
in size beca use he violated the mill
tary governments instructions not
TO criticize one of our Allies. He
printed an editorial suggesting that
Sudeten Germans had
been required to sign for 80 pounds
of goods which they were not per
mitted TO take across the border
with them
During the discussion the Minister
OF Food and Agriculture admitted
that his Office recently had notified
the press that nothing was TO be
printed about food unless it sp-
peared over his signature He said
he quickly withdrew the lettel when
he learned of it.
Gen. Muller feels that he has
made great strides in democrstizing
Bavaria. but the economics of this
largest state in the American zone
is fast approaching a crisis unless
the trade barriers can be broken
down and raw supplies obtained to
put the artisans to work and feed
the fast growing population.
Before occupation Bavaria was
about 80 per cent self sufficient in
food stuffs. With population of
100000 it was able 10 provide a
1900 caloric diet in 1914 Since that
time the population has grown to
100000 and additional refugees are
expected TO take it past the 10000, 600
mark this fall. Meanwhile, the Off
cial ration for normal consumers
dropped first to 1928 and then 10
996 last month.
Witnessed Third Election.
Politically Bavaria is one election
ahead of the other states in the
American zone. On June 80 we
witnessed the third election
choose delegates TO convention 10
write new constitution.
American Military Government waa
established in Bavaria May IS 1945,