Evening star., 1949-05-09
The Seed at Bonn

Yesterday, with fitting symbolism, the
German Parliamentary Council at Bonn
marked the fourth anniversary of the
total surrender of Hitler's Reich by COM
pleting adoption OF draft constitution
for federal republic of Western Ger
many The timing of the event, however,
represented more than a desire to take
some Of the curse of May as black
date In the history Of the country. 1t
represented, in addition, desire to plant
the seed Of new democratic state before
the Big Four Foreign Ministers meet
again, beginning May %, In an effort to
agree on Germanys future.
More specifically, In concert with France,
Britain and the United States, the Ger
mans at Bonn have acted in anticipation
of possible Soviet moves-supported by
Germany's CommunistS-to prevent the
formation of the projected republic and
substitute in its place strong centralized
government for the country as whole.
In effect, the adoption of the draft con-
stitution serves notice, In advance Of the
Foreign Ministers meeting, that work on
the West German plan is not going to be
ciples and safeguards must be accepted
by the Russians II there Is to be settle
ment ending the present partition and
merging Trizonia and the Red occupation
zone into single new state.
In other words, as Secretary Acheson
made clear in his recent address 10 the
Bureau of Advertising of the American
Newspaper Publishers Association, the
impending Conference Of Foreign Minis
tiers will not be allowed to postpone
work on the West German republic, which
is scheduled to come into being on July
15 Instead, the work will continue, with
the Russian zone welcome to participate
in 1t whenever the Soviet Union agrees to
the idea of unifying the whole Of Germany
in keeping with the purposes and aims OF
the constitution drafted at Bonn. Broadly
stated, those aims and purposes are de-
signed to guarantee, as far as Is humanity
possible, that the country will be demo-
cratic, non-militaristic and ultimately
part of what Mr.. Acheson has called "a
new common structure of the free peoples
of Europe"
This means that IL the Foreign Min
German settlement, the Russians will have
to abandon certain proposals they have
heretofore insisted upon. For example,
they will have to give up the idea of a
peace arrangement that would give them
for a fixed period of time-the right to
veto decisions on the distribution of the
Ruhr,s production, right that would
empower them to create economic paral-
ysis whenever they wished. Similarly
they will have to back away from their
demand for strong centralized govern
ment of kind that would lend itself to
an eventual Communist coup Qike the one
last year in Czechoslovakia) that would
bind Germany to the Kremlin.
In sum, now that the West Germans
have planted the seed of new democratic
Germany, there must be ironclad guar
antees against the danger that the Rus
slams, no matter how indirectly may in
time succeed in stamping out that seed
before 1t has had a chance to flourish.
Such guarantees, of course, are more
easily asked for than received, but with
out them, and without the reasonable
certainty that they will work, what has
been accomplished thus far at Bonn is
not likely to endure. Presumably, when
they sit down with the Soviet Union at
the forthcoming Foreign Ministers Con-
ference, France, Britain and the United
States will shape their terms accordingly.