Dr. Adenauer's Off-Day
It is recognised that Dr. Adenauer has a difficult row to hoe, and his first visit to Berlin as Chancellor was no doubt an occasion of some delicacy. Unfortunately the political sagacity which has so far in the main marked his activities this time proved unequal to the not very formidable demands made on it. No city in Germany owes so much to the Western Allies as Western Berlin, and its population has not shown itself unappreciative. It was an inappropriate platform to choose for the string of complaints which the Chancellor saw fit to address to the three countries whose High Commissioners were present to do him honour. How far his attack on an article in the British-controlled paper Die Welt was justified could only be determined after study of the article in full. His charge that the German Government was dependent on the Press for its knowledge of the political activities of the Western Allies has no substance ; it is an essential provision of the Occupation Statute that Germany's foreign relations,are for the present in the hands of the Allies. His reference to an unsettled question in connection with Germany's entry into the Council of Europe was not developed ; here the Chancellor showed that he could appre- ciate the wisdom of silence. But wisdom forsook him when he himself called on the audience to sing a verse of Deutschland fiber A lies, a composition harmless enough in itself but damned by the associations with which it was invested under the Nazi regime. By an action which impelled a number of Social Democrats, including the chairman of the party in Berlin, to walk out Dr. Adenauer manifested a deplorable lack of savoir-faire. and shattered harmony on an occasion on which harmony was above all things to be desired.
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