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A letter from Moscow has been cabled to the "Manchester Guardian" by A. Yanovsky[1], who signs as Contributor to "Izvestia" and the Army paper "Red Star". He writes: "It is the business of the generals to destroy German greed; it is the business of the statesman to disperse German fear" (of the worse future after Hitler's defeat). "It is necessary that the Germans be made to understand clearly that the eradication of Hitler's regime, not Germany itself is the United Nations' goal in the war and that this clear distinction is being made in allied capitals ... The present moment seems to be a decisive one in this respect. The Germans are losing confidence in their overwhelming superiority, and this change is making itself felt. The problem is to further this process and to control its direction and tempo."
(Manchester Guardian, 6.II.1943)

Jack Tanner, secretary-general of the Amalgamated Engineering Union, writes in the April issue of his Union's monthly: " ... it is to be hoped that we shall no longer witness the situation of Labour men and women - including officers of the TUC and the Labour Party - lending their names and support to the twisted policies of the so-called `Fight for Freedom' group. The interesting thing about this group of refugees who advocate the dismemberment of Germany and its control by British and American forces and who, along with their British supporters, are being used by 'straight' ruling-class imperialists like Lord Vansittart, is that nowhere in their publications do they advocate the Second Front nor the implementing of the Atlantic Charter or Anglo-Soviet Treaty. These, surely, are the tests of a sincere belief in either 'Fight' or 'Freedom'. - Recently, the Labour Party has said a great deal about the international character and associations of the Communist Party. In the interests of British socialism it might be better employed in exposing and cen-

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suring the Vansittartite character and associations of some of its own prominent Executive members." - Walter Loeb replies in The "Daily Worker" (April 17), stating that his FFF group "never advocated anything" but is only helping "The English-speaking nations to find out the truth about Germany ... My friends and myself definitely believe that Germany should not be dismembered which does not exclude necessarily frontier regulations ... Nothing from the FFF group could be produced which is directly (our italics !) contrary to the declared policy of the Labour Party."

From Lord Vansittart's "Lessons of My Life"[2] the "Manchester Guardian" (April 22) quotes a key paragraph on Germany: "In this book Lord Vansittart keeps pretty closely to his central thesis of how Germany should be treated if we are to win security for the world. The prescription itself is not half as outrageous as 'Vansittartism' has often been represented to be:

Unilateral disarmament means a good deal more than relieving the world - and Germany - of the German Army, Navy and Air Force, including civil aviation: it means the total and permanent suppression of all para-military organisations, no matter under what labels - such as youth and sport - they may masquerade. It means the abolition of over-industrialised Germany's war-potential and the ending of her dreams of economic hegemony. It means the remodelling of the German administration, bureaucracy and judiciary. It means the slow introduction of an entirely new spirit in the German schools and churches. In other words, unilateral disarmament must lead to re-education, in which the Allies must take their share without shirking. None of these essentials is possible without the prolonged and effective occupation of Germany by the united forces of the United Nations.

Other eminent persons have said as much and not been reviled. Lord Vansittart's offence has been his imputation of historical sin to Germany, his refusal to allow the German people to escape responsibility along with their rulers for the aggressions of the last 75 years, and his rejection of faith in the existence of that 'other Germany' which, once Hitler is out of the way, will turn to

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sweetness and light. It is at least an arguable thesis, even if one does not share his passionate conviction. But to many it must seem that Lord Vansittart does not always aim his blows in the wisest way. 'There are two lots of people who must be beaten in this war: the Germans and the English pseudo-intellectuals.' The latter is a term of abuse reserved for left pacifists, Fabians unwisely attracted by the neat completeness of Nazi economic organisation, confident blue-printers like Professor Carr. Annoying people, no doubt, but less potentially dangerous, as Lord Vansittart himself admits, than 'Big Business', 'the calculators of the Right, who think first of self-interest and only second of international security.' This latter contingent, 'now keeping rather quiet', deserves more of Lord Vansittart's attention, for its responsibility for appeasement was far greater than that of the maligned left." (Though the Manchester Guardian mentions with Lord Vansittart's failure to deal with the social background of appeasement it does not mention the noble Lord's failure to explain the social background of German Militarism and Nazism. Ed.)

Free Europe (Febr. 12th): A collaborator takes over A. Pilsudski's[3] proposal to internationalize from a military point of view the Kiel canal, Ruegen, Borkum, Heligoland and Danish islands (compare A. P. "The Baltic, Britain and Peace").- Free Europe (Febr. 26th): Herr Loeb tries to convert readers to his inverted racialism by quoting Hans Vogel, misinterpreting W. Sollmann and attacking a Darlanist article by Rudolf Katz without mentioning that this strange article was attacked in the New York "Neue Volkszeitung" itself. Free Europe (March 12th): Robert Phillipe[4] on economic reparations: reparations in kind may hamper the "important principle which must be applied in time if the German problem is to be solved, and that is that Germany must be de-industrialised".

Central European Observer (March 19th): Milan Grol[5], Jugoslav Minister of Communications, states that Czechs and Slovenes are firmly against a Catholic state comprising their country, Croatia, Austria, Bavaria and Hungary, which would break up Yugoslavia.

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Vrij Nederland (Febr. 27th): Large contingents of Dutch troops will have to participate in the long period of occupation of Germany. These contingents can be trained in their German garrisons for fighting in the Pacific. Sending these contingents to Germany will, incidentally ease the difficulty of finding employment for Dutch workers during the first post-war period.

Vrij Nederland (March 13th): The leader writer thinks that the real leaders of the German people will immediately after this war start to prepare a new one. You have to prevent that foreign economic interests will help them in this attempt.

Vrij Nederland (March 27th): The leader writer states that neither the Czech nor the French, Belgians and Danes want to annex part of pre-1937 Germany. "We know that by far the majority of the Dutch hold the same view ... The only exception are the Poles. The problem of the corridor has to be solved; it is fairer and also easier to solve it on Germany's costs than on Poland's" "Some Dutchmen who think of annexation propose to transfer the German population from the territory they propose to annex." "Do they want to press together Germany's population, with loss of means of existence, still more?" "That would be a danger. We speak without sentimentality, we only think of our future peace." - To keep down Germany's economic war, potential is a better guarantee of peace. - Occupation [of] Germany should only last up to the signing of the peace treaty. "That does not mean to short the time of occupation but to prolong the duration of the armistice." A very deep part of Western Germany has to be kept demilitarised once and for all, to protect the frontiers of Belgium and Holland.

The National Review (March, 43): "Will Germany Play Red?" by Axel Heyst[6] ... If everything else fails even Hitler himself might make himself leader of European Communism.
(Axel Heyst is author of "Wanted - a new Vision")

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- News for German Socialists in England -
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