Big Three plans to put Nazis in straitjacket
Allied heads meet in Black Sea area
By Lyle C. Wilson, United Press staff writer
WASHINGTON – Announcement of the Big Three conference raised great hope here today that the meeting in the Black Sea area is reaching real agreement on Europe’s peacetime future and the style of Germany’s post-surrender straitjacket.
President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Marshal Joseph V. Stalin have agreed on the strategy to insure Germany’s military defeat.
Now they have begun political and economic talks. These are the key to the future, perhaps the most important conversations in the memory of any living person.
The world will pay for any mistakes made on the Black Sea shores and benefit from all wise decisions.
Would limit policing
Mr. Roosevelt is believed to have told Mr. Churchill and Marshal Stalin that the United States prefers not to participate in the ultimate, long-term policing of Germany. It is understood that task is to be assigned to Great Britain and Russia with the possible assistance of France. We would participate directly in post-war occupation but for a limited time only.
Compromises by all three toward mutual all-over agreements generally are expected. Assurances that U.S. troops would not be among the semi-permanent European police detail could count heavily toward winning American acceptance of such compromises as the President may have to make.
To rally support
Both Mr. Roosevelt and Mr. Churchill are reported planning to speed directly home from the conference to rally public support.
Official announcement that the Roosevelt-Stalin-Churchill meeting was taking place was made simultaneously yesterday in London, Moscow and Washington. Berlin had already accurately broken the news of time and place.
The announcement said the three men with their foreign ministers, chiefs of staff and advisers – probably Harry L. Hopkins for the President – were meeting in the Black Sea area. The Big Three has completed its military discussion and the staff chiefs are working out details for Germany’s early defeat.
Other problems faced
In search of “firm foundations for a lasting peace,” the conferees have begun the other phase of their conference.
The communiqué said:
These discussions will cover joint plans for the occupation and control of Germany, the political and economic problems of liberated Europe and proposals for the earliest possible establishment of a permanent international organization to maintain peace.
The language of the communiqué committed the conferees to discussion of “joint plans” for Europe’s political and economic future. Another communiqué was promised when the conference ends.
Program outlined
General Black Sea conference plans for post-war Germany are understood to be as follows:
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Destruction of Germany’s warmaking potential centered in heavy industry, the aviation industry and the synthetics industry.
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Prevention of German living standards from improving more rapidly than those of her ravished neighbors.
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Assurance that Germany shall aid in reconstruction of her neighbors’ economies, notably by provision of materials and forced labor.
Would split up Reich
Mr. Roosevelt is known to have been convinced that Germany must survive in some form, but tailored geographically. He is believed to be proposing that Prussia shall be separate from all else in Germany – Prussia being damned as the seat of German belligerency. But the extent to which Germany shall be further dismembered – if at all – is subject to discussion.
Germany would be deprived of airplanes and submarines, the facilities to manufacture them, and, possibly, the privilege of teaching her people to fly.
The conception of “grounding” an entire nation is understood to be Mr. Roosevelt’s own.
Disarmament planned
Germany would be disarmed. The Black Sea conferees are expected to complete and perhaps to announce a peacetime plan for international policing and regular inspection of Germany to prevent nullification of armaments prohibitions this time as Germany so deftly nullified them after World War I.
If inspection found Germany cheating, her borders would be closed. If cheating persisted, air police with bombs would enforce the regulations.
A distinction is made between the initial period of “occupation” of Germany and the ultimate period of international police control. The United States will participate with its armed forces in Germany’s “occupation” as hostilities cease.
In joint custody
Occupation plans are expected to put Berlin in joint Anglo-American-Russian custody. Russian troops would occupy eastern Germany, British troops northwestern Germany, and U.S. troops southwestern Germany. Early plans called for Anglo-American occupation of the Rhineland. It is likely that France now will share in that.
Some officials here talk of occupation in terms of “until 2000 AD” – a matter of 50 to 55 years. Mr. Roosevelt, however, is believed to feel that the American people would not accept such direct responsibility for the peace of Europe on such long terms.
Mr. Churchill is understood to have felt – at least at one time – that the Americans would and should accept responsibility for keeping armed forces in Europe for many years.
Full participation for U.S.
Mr. Roosevelt’s idea is understood to be that the enforcing power of the regulations under which a surrendered Germany must live would be the United Nations (Dumbarton Oaks organization) with full U.S. participation and complete acceptance of that responsibility.
But the implement would be British, Russian and French international police – no Americans. If the police were unable to handle the job, they could call for help – and get it – including U.S. troops if needed.
The President’s idea of a likely period of initial “occupation” of Germany is understood to be about a year.
Wants treaty delayed
He would prefer that 12 months elapse after the end of hostilities before the United Nations undertake to write a peace treaty for the defeated Germans. Occupation would appear to be necessary pending the peace treaty.
The British have not abandoned their hope that the United States will contribute armed forces of some kind for the long-term policing of Germany after the occupation period ends. It has been suggested here and in Britain that the German police detail would be a good place to train some of our young men if we adopt post-war universal military training.
It is possible, of course, that the British may obtain agreement to at least a “token” armed force from this country. But the President is known to have doubted that the American people would accept such responsibility.
May allot areas
In what apparently will be partly a partition and partly an internationalization of portions of Germany, there has been discussion of allotting industrial Silesia on the east to Poland – a rich prize.
France wants internationalization of the Rhineland, the Saar Basin and part of the Ruhr Valley. That is industrial Germany on the west.
Germany under that setup would lose outright, or lose control, of about 75 percent of her coal. Her warmaking power would be lost with it.
Marshal Stalin may hear gently from Mr. Roosevelt that full dress Russian participation in the peace problems of the Atlantic and the Mediterranean areas is of questionable necessity.
Open elections favored
But Russia’s prime interests on the continent are recognized. The only string to that is that the United States urgently seeks assurances that liberated countries shall have a fair and open chance to choose their form of post-war government.
Polish, Greek, Italian and Yugoslav situations challenge that American objective in various degrees. The three little Baltic states – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – were long since incorporated into the Soviet Union by formal action preceded by a vote.
Objectors have complained that Russian troops were occupying the three states when the votes were taken. Few here, however, have any expectation that the question involved there will be opened for further examination.
Polish compromise sought
But a Polish compromise is eagerly sought and with some confidence. The idea is that Moscow might agree to some kind of merger of the Lublin Polish government, which Russia recognizes, with the London Polish government. The latter is recognized by the United States and Britain.
Mr. Roosevelt may propose that Stanislaw Mikolajczyk, leader of the Polish Peasant Party and former premier of the London Polish government, join the Lubin government. That is the nearest to a “solution” of the problem that American diplomacy has conceived so far as is known here.
The Polish question is hot in the United States where some millions of voters were born in Poland or are of Polish descent.
Frontiers to be changed
If the conferees face the Polish problem directly, they will have to agree on a substantial revision of that nation’s frontiers. Russia has taken back a large area of eastern Poland and intends to keep it.
There has been some apprehension here that events, with or without assistance from Moscow, will lead to the post-war communization of Europe. Mr. Churchill rather than Mr. Roosevelt is expected to take the lead in seeking any assurance from Marshal Stalin on that question. It has been repeatedly emphasized here by well-informed persons that on the continent of Europe neither the United States nor Britain has any really enforceable demands.
Moscow wants post-war credits, heavy machinery and technical aid from us. Those are bargaining points. But beyond bargaining and persuasion there does not appear to be any means by which Marshal Stalin could be prevented from adopting such continental policies as may seem desirable to him.
Allies may name military board
LONDON, England (UP) – Diplomatic quarters believed today that one of the decisions to be announced at the end of the Big Three conference may be the formation of a military board by America, Britain and Russia to deal the death blow to the German Army.
Observers here believe the Russians are ready – for the first time – to join the Americans and British in the formation of a military committee that will execute the strategy planned by President Roosevelt, Marshal Stalin and Prime Minister Churchill. Military experts are already working on the decisions made by the Big Three.
London diplomats believe the military board will function only until the defeat of Germany. After that, a joint administrative commission would be formed, it was reported, to rule the Reich.