Evening star., 1948-11-21
By WiIIiom McGoffin

how American occupation in Ger
many Is taxing the United States
Treasury and exposing United States
citizens-the alleged victors-to pos
sible future dangers.
We Americans could learn some
things from the hard-boiled and re-
alistic French approach - things
which would have saved us dollars
in the past and probably could save
us more in the future. And things
that might provide the world with a
sounder assurance against the Ger
mans succumbing to another dicta-
torship and plunging the world into
yet another war.
How French Run Zone
I came to these conclusions after
visiting Berlin and the. principal
cities of the three Western zones of
Germany in a four-week tour during
which 1 covered more than 1000
miles by car. I think I am in a
position now to compare American
with French and British policy, both
Of which are harder-nosed.
Let me tell you what the French
have done. 1t is an indisputable
fact that for three years they have
run their zone of Germany without
it costing France red cent, while
we have been kicking in with hun
dreds of millions of dollars.
/ How did they do it? BY living
off the land and by boosting exports
so that they paid for whatever i'm
ports were required. BY French es-
innate some 100000 Frenchmen
counting wives and children) have
lived off the land-but there still
was enough for the Germans to eat.
I can personally testify that the
Germans do not look any worse off
in the French zone than in the
British and American zones. Social
unrest has not been any greater
and communism is no more Of
threat than in our zones.
/ The American argument always
has been, I'VE must be lenient with
the Germans or they will go Com
munist." The French say, That, of
course, is a danger. But we think
there is margin to work with. We
think you could be f1rmer with the
Germans, not so easily bamboozled,
and still not have them go Com
munist."
Commercialized Farms
Beginning October /, the French
stopped living of the land. We are
putting up sl0o,OO0,O00 to pay for
this change in French policy which
was induced by American policy In
Germany. But before 60 into that,
let me tell you how the French
managed to achieve this miracle of
an occupation where both occupier
and occupied got fed without 1t
costing France anything.
LID iS INV ~ was tolu W ulC ny
various high-placed French off,
Gals:
Our zone was better of agri-
culturally than the Ruhr but not
much better off than your American
zone. We were better balanced here
no very big cities, fewer towns,
not so much damage, lighter in
dustry. Also, the Germans moved
raw materials here for safekeeping
toward the latter part of the war
to get them away from the heavy
bombing in the Ruhr. These ma
terials helped us to get our export
industries going quickly.
"All these things helped but the
most important was that we COM
mercialized our farms better than
you did in the American zone We
had Alsatians who speak both
French and German. And they
know these farms. A German could
not deceive them about how much
farm would produce And when
an Alsatian gave an order, he
shouted it. He did not give it
soft spokenly as the Americans do.
A German understands that it's an
order only if it's shouted.
Too Easily Fooled
The food that came out in your
zone after the currency reform
proves that you were suckers. The
Bavarian farmers were boarding it,
even though they knew Germans
needed it in the Ruhr. They are
complete egoists-they don't give a
damn for their fellow Germans. You
see them in Bavaria now with that
rolling fat German neck they're
getting again.
You Americans are too easily
fooled by the Germans. You are
too credulous. You don't know the
mentality of an occupied people be-
cause you have never been occupied
! yOuI ~ 1S lldUuI dl GlldU
man will lie to you, hoard food. de-
ceive you about his budgets and try
to make the occupation burden as
light as possible.
When the French, the Yanks
and the British first came in, the
Germans feared us all. It's all very
we'll to talk about freedom from
fear, but you can't run an accupa-
ton without it. The Germans quick
ly lost their fear Of you Americans.
You wouldn't have had to hang a.
couple OF peasants. II you had only
threatened to, and made them be-
lieve you meant 1t, you would have
got the food off the farms.
Army Took Easy Course
The Germans are playing the
same game now as after the First
World War. At first. they just stood
Ipat. Then they started working on
our sympathy and claiming that
they were starving. You Americansl