Evening star., 1960-08-22

right to inspect captured Ger
man warships in the Western
zones Of Germany-although
the reason the permission had
been denied was because United
States and British observers
had been barred from Soviet
occupied German ports.
Although Russia had inter-
vened with planes, troops and
war materiel in the Spanish
Civil War. Stain could demand
that the big Three denounce
Franco because his govern
ment resulted from interven-
ton by Hitler and Mussolini."
The papers also, Interestingly
enough, indicate that this
hard-f1sted Russian boss was
also a moody and somewhat
Superstitious man.
When Mr.. Hartman told
him in Moscow that he hoped
the Red army would find
Hitler's body In the ruins of
Berlin, Stain answered, ac-
cording to Mr.. Bohlen'S notes:
Marshal Stain replied that
in his opinion Hitler was not
dead but hiding somewhere. He
said the Soviet doctors thought
they had identified the body
Of Goebbels and Hitler's chauf-
feur. but that he personally
doubted If Goebbels was dead
and said the whole matter
was strange and the various
talks of funerals and burials
struck him as being very dubi-
GUS.
He said he thought that
Bormann, GoebelS. Hitler and
probably Krebs had escaped
and were in hiding :" He
added that he believed Hitler
had fled to Japan in a subma-
rine.
Most often, at the Potsdam
cnference table. Stain was the
bargainer - trying to reduce
questions of principle to mat
ters of degree.
When Churchill complained
of Russian thefts of British
owned oil company property in
Romania. Stain called it "a
trifng matter which could be
settled through diplomatic
channels"-and went on to
say that since it had been
seized first by the Germans,
it was perfectly all right for
the Russians to take it now.
When Churchill said that the
German submarine feet should
be Sunk-since there was little
legal use for the U-boats under
international law-Stalin said:
Let's divide it. If Mr.. Church.
i'll wishes, he can sink his
share"
Tried to Split Allies
Stain did his best to divide
his fellow allies. against each
other. The first time he met
Mr.. Truman-on July II, the
day the Potsdam conference
opened-he told him that he
thought the British had very
little interest in the war
against Japan" and that this
might be a complicating fac
tor" in relations with the
British.
Interestingly. Stain - like
Churchill and Mr.. Truman -.
guessed wrong about the re-
suits OF the British election of
that summer. He said that
!, Churchill's great service dur
!, ing the war" and the British
instinct Of preservation NJ
would keep him in office. He
lost in a landslide to Socialist
Clement Attlee.)
Stain again sought to estab-
lish a two-way relationship in
side the three-power alliance
when he told Secretary of War
Henry L. Stimson, in a private
meeting July 25, that "the
Russians and Americans easily
understood each other-more
SO than in the case of the Rus
slams and the British Rus
slams and Americans had some
thing in common"
AS it turned out, Stain did
not succeed in splitting the
Western allies-and, accord
ing to the long-secret Pots
dam papers, his failure was
in part the result of persistent
British efforts to alert the
J Americans to the dangers
ahead.
Tomorrow - Warnings or
, Stain police state rule,