Evening star., 1950-06-17
Resumption Of Trade
Certain in Europe
Despite 'ldeoIogies'
Western Germany Gets
Powers to Negotiate
With Other Nations
By Dorothy Thomson

Sooner, or later, despite con-
fiicting "ideologies," East West
European trade will be resumed
This week, through the United
Nations Economic Commission for
Europe, Russia offered to sell sew
eral million tons Of grain to West
ern Europe - taunting, "but. OF
course, we do not expect the
United States to permit you West
erners to trade with us because
the United States wants to dump
its Surpluses on you poor people. u
The taunt was effective, because
it is partly true. The Agriculture
Department has insisted, for in
stance, that Germans buy mainly
dollar wheat under the interna-
tional wheat agreement.
But Western Germany Is now
receiving powers to conduct nego-
tiations with foreign nations. And
the Bonn government will GER
tainly seek the most favorable
sources from which to supply her
food deficit, immensely increased
by the loss to Poland of % per
cent Of her agricultural land.
Heralded by Schuman Plan.
The Schuman plan heralds a
conjoining of French and West
German economies. France also
has grain to export-some 8 mil
lion tons. But Germany under the
present agreement cannot buy
French wheat until she has i'm
ported from the United States her
full quota. This is unlikely to
continue. To insist on it will sup
port Russian propaganda.
The political arrangements i'm
posed on West Germany offer pos
sibilities unforeseen. To prevent
the rise of centralized Germany,
West Germany has been split into
IL states with considerable SOW
ereign powers.
Recently, one of these 0ower
Saxony) negotiated on it's own,
and without reference to Bonn, a
trade treaty with the East Ger
man Communist government-to
exchange vegetables, fish, and
meat, against East German wood,
paper, and chemicals. This gov
ernment also helped organize the
alderman Committee for Agri-
culture which meets today in
Frankfort, heart of West Ger
many, with 80 delegates, most Of
them from East Germany.
Again, the Western Allies can
not effectively oppose the reopen
ing Of trade within Germany
Itself.
Industries Need Market.
The Ruhr and Rnineland indus
tries, whether French or German.
need markets-and are certain, in
the long run, not to neglect the
East.
Even before Hitler. Germany
was chief deliverer of industrial
supplies TO L1S BALKANS.
The German Republic had a
trade agreement with the Soviets,
and the German embassy in Mos.
COW was the largest and most ex.
pert in Russia. It, alone, had an
agricultural attache. Professor
Schiller, now living in Stuttgart,
who probably knows more about
the mechanics of Russian agricul-
ture than any non-Russian.
German trsdesmen. previous to
the last war. were popular in
China, partly because they had no
extraterritorial status there.
The question is what industrial
supplies can be exchanged with
Communist countries without fall
ing under the ban put on indus
trial equipment that can be used
for war purposes.
AS long as the cold war con-
tinues, it will be feared that the
price Of trade with Russia will be
the communication of Germany.
That has not, however, been Ger
man experience, and it is expert
ence that counts. The Germans
who have gotten on best with the
Russians have been technical men
of the managerial class-not Ger
man Communists, whom Stain
often has contemptuously thrust
aside.
1t is precisely this type of man
the industrial engineer-who is
the rising power in Western Ger
many. This type is not an ideal
ogue. The late Henry Ford once
said to this columnist, "FaScism? I?
communism? democracy? I am
indifferent to such terms. I can
make automobiles under any form
of government-and any one of
them would use me-" This is the
basic attitude of the modern tech
nical-induStrial mind.
Stain. of course, is no Com
munist. The chronological revo-
luton has long since overtaken
Marx. Stain is a great tsar,
building an industrial empire at
whatever cost in human sweat and
tears. and in Russia, too, a new
managerial ruling class has sup
planted the owner-class, largely
based on land. that bolshevism
exterminated.
That development is occurring
everywhere, regardless Of political
credos, and, in the belief of this
columnist, it eventually will frus-.
trate the cold war.
(Released by the Bell Syndicate, IncJ
Nehru Saws Communism