GOVERNING THE BRITISH ZONE
Sra,—May I as one who has served in Germany express my general agree- ment with your article on Hunger in Germany and also with the state- ments made by Mrs. Buxton in her letter in last week's issue? I cannot, however, agree with the justice of the complacent admonitions thrown out by Sir Sholto Douglas and General Clay, as these are based on half- truths. It will be readily admitted by very many officers who have had actual experience there that we have been very largely responsible for the creation of much of the present chaos. The original Military Govern- ment policy was based on the sound principle of indirect control which accepted the fact that we could never hope to have the numbers of experienced personnel available to administer a country of the size and complexity of the British zone. The only thing we could do—and it was the crucial thing—was to concentrate on control and leave all details of administration to the Germans, who would have to solve their own problems in their own way, leaving us to see that their methods did not contravene Allied policy. In other words, we were to do exactly what Hitler did when he usurped power: put our men in all key positions and use the existing administration to carry out the policy we dictated.
Instead of this, the Commission has from the outset slowly and sys- tematically murdered a first-class realistic policy in order to find lucrative posts for its over-organised staffs. The result of this was evident over a year ago that we were creating a chaos which we could not handle, and as a consequence we have now had to hand the administration back to the Germans with much loss of prestige. It is very easy now to make a statement that the responsibility for the collection and distribution of food, etc., is a German problem and not ours, but we are not informed that, although the responsibility has been handed back in a chaotic state, the necessary authority to carry out this responsibility has not been handed back. To name only two points: First, the intensely stupid denazifica- tion policy, which, incidentally, is a travesty of British justice, deprives the Germans of the employment of the only competent trained officials available until such time as they have been cleared by the courts, which may be years. Secondly, the penalties for the withholding of farm pro- ducts are matters for the Germans themselves to decide, yet they are in actual fact fixed or subject to approval by C.C.G. Penalties should be sufficiently severe to have a deterrent effect, and under present conditions the risk of a fine for withholding a bag of potatoes is well worth taking.--
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