Evening star., 1948-03-02
CordeH Hull
By CordeII Hull
assisted by Andrew serdinsl
CHAPTER XXXII


meet with Prime Minister Churchill
for the second Quebec Conference,
in September, 1914, he asked me
whether I wished to accompany him.
The conference, however, was in
tended to be largely military. was
not well, the Dumbarton Oaks Con-
ference was in progress, and I told
him ! preferred to remain in Wash
ington but would be available if he
needed me.
Shortly before the conference was
due to assemble, the President was
prevailed upon to permit Secretary
Of the Treasury Morgenthau to at
tend the meeting. Morgenthau and
his friends had been working for
some time on a drastic plan for the
postwar treatment of Germany, and
the leaders of groups who had been
justly wrought up by German out
RACES requested the President to in
vite Morgenthau to go to Quebec
primarily to present his plan for
Germany.
The President himself leaned to
the idea that the German people as
a whole should be given a lesson
they would remember. On August
26, 1914, he had sent a long memo
randum to Secretary of War Slim
son, copy of which was sent to me,
protesting against the handbook
drawn up for the guidance OF mill
tary government officials in Ger
many.
ut gives the impression" he said,
that Germany is to be restored just
as much as the Netherlands or Bel
gium, and the people of Germany
brought back as quickly as possible
to their prewar estate.
New Idea on German Navy.
1T is of the utmost Importance
that every person in Germany should
realize that this time Germany is a
defeated nation. I do not want them
to starve to death, but, as an ex-
ample, If they need food to keep
body and soul together beyond what
they have, they should be fed three
times a day with soup from Army
soup kitchens. That will keep them
perfectly healthy, and they will re-
member that experience all their
lives. The fact that they are a de-
feated nation, collectively and indi-
vidually, must be so impressed upon
them that they will hesitate to start
any new war"
With regard to the disposition of
the German Navy, the President ad-
vanced new idea.
He wrote me a memorandum on |
October Is in which he said he
agreed with the views of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff with regard to the
complete destruction of the German
fleet, but he had one amendment
to make. i
Destruction in the past" he
said, "has meant taking the ships
to sea and sinking them. I think
that in some cases surrendered
ships have been destroyed by con-
verting them into scrap metal. I
do not like the idea of complete
destruction by the sinking of thou
sands of tons Of steel.
Recently new use for such
ships has been discovered. We have
used sunken ships as breakwaters
for the formation of new harbors.
This has been done in Italy and
it has been done on the coast of
Normandy. It is a relatively cheap
way to build breakwater. think
that the United Nations should be
IN position to pass on applications
by Allied nations for these ships for
the definite and specific purpose of
sinking them as breakwaters to i'm
prove or create safe anchorages. It
is rather nice thought to use
them for such peaceful purposes.
"In any such cases, the ships
should be sunk at a designated
place as quickly as possible and
under the eyes of United Nations
committee. Once sunk it would be
practically impossible to raise them
and restore them to war purposes.
New Committee Planned.
Harry Hopkins came to me on
l, 1914, and informed me s
OF the Presidents desire to estab-
lish a Cabinet Committee on Ger
many"
I held the first meeting of the
Cabinet Committee" in my office