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"Tory Group's Proposals" reported the "Manchester Guardian" (May 17th): "Sweeping proposals for dealing with a defeated Germany are set out in a memorandum published yesterday by the Post-war Policy Group of M.P.s and peers, of which Sir John Wardlaw-Milne[1] is chairman and Mr. J. Craik Henderson[2] vice-chairman ..." It is stated that the group fully appreciate the desirability of the terms of the Atlantic Charter being put into operation in such a way as to enable the German people and those of other defeated powers to take their place in a prosperous world economy. But a condition of this must be the certainty that neither Germany nor any other of the Axis Powers shall be in the position again to launch aggressive wars on the world ... unconditional surrender ... must be followed by the effective occupation of Germany and the setting-up of an Inter-Allied Council of Control. This council should be charged with the duty of preserving order, of carrying out the immediate demobilisation of all German armed forces, and with many other problems. This should be followed by a peace treaty which, however, could not materialise for several years owing to the many difficult questions to be settled ... It is too early to consider detailed peace terms (says the memorandum), but the following are essential points:

1. Germany shall be occupied by an Allied Army and Air Force until the Allies agree that such occupation may with safety be terminated or relaxed.

2. East Prussia ... should not form part of Prussia or Germany. 3. The Rhineland, including Rhenish Westphalia, should be separated from the rest of Prussia and made an independent German State. 4. The Allied Council of Control should be given powers to arrange transfers of peoples rendered necessary by the restoration of the invaded territories and the separation of East Prussia from the rest of Germany ... 5. The restoration of the sovereignty of all countries invaded by the Axis Powers.

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6. Regional police forces of purely local composition, purged of all military character and purpose and completely free from central control, should be set up. No ex-service officers to be employed.

7. For a period to be defined by experience there must be inter-Allied supervision of German ratio and printing and control of propaganda. 8. The curriculum of university and school studies must be determined under Allied control and advice. 9. Germany shall not be allowed to have any Army, Navy, or Air Force ... any civil aviation or aircraft industry until the Allied nations decide otherwise. 11. All loot must be returned where this is possible or compensation in kind given ...

15. The German States shall pay all the costs arising from the occupation by the Allies.

16. Private loans to Germany should be prohibited and steps taken by fixing the rate of exchange between German currency and that of Allied currency to prevent her, by manipulated inflation, flooding other countries of the world with her products."

A remark in the Westminster Digest of "Free Europe" (May 21) indicates doubt whether such a post-war programme may not lead into a blind alley. After praising the recommendations of the Post-war Policy Group, Mr. Charles Braithwaite writes: "It is difficult to foresee a Germany permanently deprived of her main industries, minus armed forces and aviation of any kind. It is equally difficult to envisage any scheme whereby these deprivations can be avoided without endangering future peace."

The conservative "Yorkshire Post" (May 17) remarks in a leader dealing with these proposals: "...Is force to be used on the lines suggested by the Memorandum or is there another method - a method of removing the will to war in Germany by removing the causes underlying the will to war? The difficulties attaching to either method are extremely grave. The fundamental objection to the maintenance of an enforced peace is that any German Government associated with its implementation must incur the greatest odium; and since it is common ground that no Hitlerite Government will be tolerated it follows that this odium must fall on the non-Hitlerite, and presum-

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ably fairly reasonable and honest Government, which will ultimately take over after Hitler and the Nazi gangs have been swept away. Even stronger and more enduring will be the hatred felt by Germans for the armed occupation of their country. If the attempt is made to render these emotions harmless by breaking up Germany into a number of smaller territories, a new problem arises. Can it be seriously hoped that the Rhineland, for example, would remain a 'separate German State', as the Memorandum suggests? Would it not inevitably try to reattach itself to the Fatherland? And if it were to be incorporated in some other state, would it not prove a festering sore? And if a different method is tried - if Germany as a whole is kept economically weak, the question arises whether Europe as a whole can afford to see Germany other than prosperous.

But what of the alternative? Germany has a population more or less, of 80 millions. And whereas this population still has an upward trend the Nazis are pursuing a deliberate policy of weakening the populations of the enslaved countries to such a degree as to make her own superiority even more crushing. It is no fanciful suggestion that the Germans, having realised that they cannot win the war, are already taking steps to win the peace. In these circumstances is there any hope that the German will to war would be removed by a policy of removing the incentives? ..."

"The Observer" (May 23) regards this memorandum as being "...in flat contradiction to the high purpose of the United nations. It advocates a treatment of a conquered Germany very similar to that which Hitler is meting out to conquered France. Deliberate humiliation and strangulation of a vanquished nation is equally evil ethically and equally shortsighted politically, whether pursued by our enemies or by ourselves. It would promote the very evil of renewed war which it pretends to forestall.

We demand unconditional surrender ... "Unconditional Surrender" must be read in conjunction with the Atlantic Charter. The one is a threat to the tyrants. The other is a promise to the peoples. The time is fast approaching when this promise will have to be translated into concrete detail and palpable fact ...

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Soon our armies will descend on the first of the Axis countries. Will they come as conquerors only or also as liberators? An Italian correspondent gives, in another column, a sober and objective analysis of the state of the Italian public mind. (We want to draw our readers' attention to this most remarkable article. Ed.) ...

It cannot be too late, and it is certainly not too early, to work out a frame-work programme for the future of Italy, which shows her people the way out of the Fascist abyss. Such a course will allow us to appeal to something nobler in them than fear."

"Fortnightly" (May 1943) Victor Bodson[3], the Luxembourg Minister of Justice, after discussing economic measures to give the small nations security against a future German aggression, writes: "... That the control of Germany must be adequate goes without saying, but it is equally in the common interest that it should not call for a body of millions of soldiers who would have to be constantly on their guard and ready to strike at an hour's notice. This would put too heavy a burden upon the shoulders of each member of the Council of Europe, and within a short time demands would arise for a decrease in the numbers of the international police force. If such demands were mutually agreed to, their practical application would result in a relaxation of our control, leading Europe to the same slippery road on which she struggled from 1926 onwards. A development on similar lines would be unavoidable, for such is human nature ... Our children are inclined to forget what we have suffered, as we have forgotten the suffering of our parents.

Plans to avoid this must be drawn up now in readiness for the day of surrender, and no time should be wasted in carrying them out, even at the risk of depriving our debtor - and what a debtor! - of part of his production capacity."

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