Evening star., 1951-09-20
Adenouer to the West Germans

As a prelude to the forthcoming negotiations
between his government and the Allied Anglo
French American High Commission, Chancellor
Konrad Adenauer has delivered fortnight
address making clear to the people of the West
German Federal Republic that their safety and
well-being are dependent on the projected peace
contract between their truncated country on
one hand and France Britain and the United
States on the other.
Under the contract" as Dr. Adenauer has
said, the Federal Republic will become an almost
sovereign nation and will participate directly
with the rest of free Europe in the American led
Atlantic pact program for the armed defense of
the West against the threat of Red aggression.
In the Chancellor's words, this program-which
involves the Federal Republics economic CO.
operation in the schuman Plan along with
limited German rearmament-is 'the surest way
to preserve peace in the world" Without it, as
he has warned his countrymen "the fate of
unhappy Korea will be our fate" with it, how
ever, with the republics integration as an equal
partner into the common front being organized
by the family of Western nations the Soviet
Union will experience a defeat-vis-a-vis that
part of the word-"just as decisive" as the Asatic
defeat 1t has suffered at San Francisco on the
Japanese treaty.
What DR.. Adenauer has emphasized-"w
UpGlullSIH dllU COIlQeuCe Is IQdG LIE lWQenQ"
ing negotiations at Bonn will in effect amount to
such setback for the Kremlin. In other words,
as he has plainly implied in his address, West
Germanys adherence to the contract" with
France, Britain and the United States will help
to right the European power balance so effec-
lively that the Stain dictatorship will be under
taking an extremely dangerous gamble-one it
can hardly hope to win-if 1t undertakes to cut
loose with aggression and march toward the
English Channel Accordingly basing his views
on the assumption that that dictatorship is sane
enough to avoid suicidal adventures, DR.. Aden-
auer has assured his countrymen that their
partnership with the Atlantic community will
give them good reason to hope for conditions
under which the free world will be able eventually
to work out decent and enduring peace with
the Russians peace uniting the now-parti-
toned German people as fully integrated and
independent land
Even though no one can be sure of what
the men of the Kremlin may do in the months
Immediately ahead, these words are neither
empty nor wishful. On the contrary, they add
up to a reasonable expectation, and Dr. Adenauer
has done well to address them to the people
of West Germany at time when certain polit-
ical elements in the Republic are speaking out
against the peace contract" or urging that it
be watered down with various kinds of reserva-
tions. The Chancellor's vigorous espousal of the
contract" has served also to offset the propa-
ganda of Moscows puppet East German regime
The propaganda, of course, is obvious 1t seeks
to torpedo the Bonn negotiations with threatful
hints of possible armed counteraction by the
soviets and with honeyed talk calling for an
inter-German agreement for national "unifica-
ton" on the basis Of free elections" through
out the country.
Such propaganda, however. is not likely to
get very far against the kind of arguments that
Chancellor Adenauer has set forth. He is an
effective and highly trusted political leader, and
the great majority Of West Germans are disposed
to lend much more attentive ear to him than
to his partisan-minded critics in the Federal
Republic or the Communist stooges in East
Germany, Everything considered, the outlook
seems bright for the peace contract"