The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1947-05-22
Comment On World Events

an the 2 years since the close Of
hostilities Russia has already re-
ceived reparations amounting TO
billions of dollars, yet her claim
today is the same as it was at
Yalta," it was charged by the
American Association for Demo-
cratic Germany, s East dist Street,
New York.
According to the June issue Of
the associations bulletin, Facts
About Occupied Germany, the So
Wet Union has received repara-
tions from s sources: plants and
machinery removed from Eastern
Germany; reparations taken from
current production of the Russian
zone; factories in the Russian zone,
the ownership of which has been
vested in Soviet corporations; Ger
man prisoners Of war and German
civilians employed at forced labor
in Russia; assets in former Ger
man territory transferred to Rus
sia and Poland; German external
assets in eastern Austria and east
ern and Southeastern Europe; capi-
tai goods delivered by the Wes-
tern powers from their zones of
Germany, including shipping; and
the use of confiscated German pat
ents and industrial secrets.
The report states that approx
mately half the machinery in the
Soviet zone has been removed to
Russia, but points out that the
transfer has been extremely waste
full, adding far less to the Russian
economy than was subtracted from
that of Germany. 1t estimates the
value of reparations from the cur
rent production of the Russian zone
at over a billion dollars a year, IN
terms of pre-war prices, are al
most twice as much at today's
world price level.
Analysing the available informa-
ton on German prisoners Of war IN
Russia, the report estimates the
average number of prisoners in
Russian hands for the 2 years since
the end of hostilities at a minimum
of 2 million. 1t places the net value
of their labor at approximately a
billion dollars at pre-war prices,
on the basis of the most conser-
vative estimates.
Other sources of reparations
which the report mentions without
assigning them any specific values
are annexed territories, German
external assets, capital goods from
the Western zones, and German
patients and industrial secrets.
In conclusion, the report de-
clares: "To a casual reader the re-
ports of the Moscow Conference
might convey the impression that
Russia had so far received only
negligible reparations from Ger
many. Certainly this is the con-
clusion which the Russian people
must have reached, and been in
tended to reach, from the accounts
in their press. Indeed, many OF the
statements of the Soviet represen-
tatives at the conference seem to
have been directed less at their
British and American opposite
numbers than at public opinion in
the Soviet Union. Thus the Russian
people have been led to attribute a
large part of their present econom-
ic plight to the refusal of the Wes-
tern Allies to allot Russia share
of Germany's resources at all pro-
portionate to her sacrifices. Per-
haps because they feared it would
hinder efforts at a compromise,
Western representatives at Mos
cow did little to conteract this i'm
preston.
"The analysis which we have
made is, in the absence of official
figures, obviously inadequate to
establish the total value of the re-
parations which the Soviet Union
has SO far received. But it is suf-
ficient to indicate that the 10 bill
lion dollars figure claimed by Stall
in at Yalta may already have been
reached"