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Page 449 taken by the Zonal Executive to co-operate with the committees set up by the Occupation Authorities in the reorganisation of the coal-mining industry. This statement on the part of Herr Schmidt was particularly important in view of the reserve with which our plans had been greeted by Dr. Boeckler, who felt that the committees set up did not provide adequately for Trade Union representation. Herr Schmidt said that he expected German coal production to reach the level of 350,000 tons per day by November.

B.-Dr. Schumacher

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The longest talk I had during my visit was with the leader of the Social Democrat Party, Dr. Schumacher. In spite of the strains of the election period, which had only just ended, he struck me as being in better health than when I last saw him. Whatever truth there may be in the suggestion that his hold in the Party was weakened as a result of his leadership both during and immediately after the General Election, it seemed to me that his position is secure. Whatever his temperamental defects, there is no one who denies his outstanding intellectual capacity.

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Before we discussed dismantling, Dr. Schumacher referred to the rôle of the Social Democrat Party (SPD) in the new Federal Parliament. This, he said, would be an Opposition without qualification. The SPD intended to force the Federal Government to put through the kind of social policy the SPD wanted.

When the conversation turned to dismantling, Dr. Schumacher left much of the discussion to his three colleagues, Prof. Noelting, Minister of Economics in the Government of North Rhine-Westphalia, Herr Henssler, Chairman of the Party Executive in North Rhine-Westphalia, and Prof. Baade, the Party expert on dismantling.

The latter was the chief spokesman, and based his case on the SPD memo- randum addressed to the British Labour Party. Economic, employment, political and psychological arguments against dismantling were advanced, and Professor Baade added that, as a result of dismantling, at no time since the beginning of the occupation had such tension existed between the British and the Germans. Dr. Schumacher referred to the support the SPD were receiving in their fight from democratic organisations in Great Britain, the United States and France, and stated that they proposed to carry on with their campaign.

In my reply I laid stress on the fact that we were administering a tripartite and not merely a British policy; that its motive was a desire for security and not to injure the proper competitive ability of Germany; that the dismantling pro- gramme had recently been substantially reduced; and that in concentrating on dis- mantling, which was a diminishing factor, the SPD were in danger of under- estimating the constructive developments in Germany which we had helped to bring about and which were expanding and increasing in importance. I said that we recognised their democratic rights and that if they carried on a campaign on constitutional lines against dismantling we could not object. Dr. Schumacher was obviously disappointed that I gave no indication of Allied intention either to stop or to modify their present dismantling policy. I ended the talk on a more acceptable note by expressing my pleasure at a press statement issued by the SPD a few days earlier which paid tribute to the British as an Occupying Power.

I formed the impression that Dr. Schumacher intended to make dismantling the first major issue in the Federal Parliament, and that he would press the Government to raise the matter with the High Commission at an early date. He seemed confident of rallying the support of political, trade union, parliamentary, press and Church forces abroad in his campaign.

C.-The Federal President

In the course of my talk with the Federal President, who had asked me for my impressions, I said that, during my first visit fifteen months ago, I had given special attention to the question of housing, which, in my view, formed with the related refuged problem the most urgent social issug469mah997During my present visit I had been disappointed at the lack of evidence of a real drive on new housing for the people. I had noticed a good deal of activity in connection

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with the rebuilding of churches, town halls and luxury buildings and on the repairs of damaged houses, and I had noted with satisfaction that a considerable amount of tidying up in war-damaged centres had been done. But of new housing Í had seen little evidence, though I admitted that this was not proof that new housing construction was not being carried on. I said that in Great Britain all the political parties had put forward in their election programmes in 1945 plans for a housing drive, and that under the present Government, apart from the repair of a vast number of damaged dwellings, 1 million units of new housing accommo- dation had been completed by the end of July this year.

The President described what had been done in Western Germany and said that the great obstacle was the lack of credit resources. This point was stressed by others. But there is no doubt that both labour and materials are available for a housing drive. On the other hand, building costs have risen steeply, and as rents, even of new houses, are restricted to the pre-war equivalent, private invest- ment is not attracted, as it is not an economic proposition to build houses to rent. Later, in conversation with Frau Teusch, Minister of Education in North Rhine- Westphalia, I was told that DM.306 million had been allocated out of the Land budget for housing, and that a similar allocation was being asked for out of the Federal budget. These together would cover the provision of about 60,000 new housing units at present building costs. My comment was that it would take many years at this rate to break the back of the housing problem.

I understand that the SPD had made housing one of the principal items of their election programme, but, despite present deplorable housing conditions, it does not appear to have exerted an appeal comparable with that in the British General Election of 1945.

This confirmed the impression which I had already formed that the Germans are not only a very industrious (they are making tremendous productive efforts as the steel and coal figures show) but also a very enduring people. It would seem that they are willing to tolerate social conditions which would produce acute political unrest in this country which no party could afford to ignore. It is, however, only fair to add that housing in Germany is a Land responsibility and that it is only with the creation of a Federal Parliament that it can now be properly viewed on a national scale. But I could not refrain in my conversa tions with some of the German leaders from expressing the view that, if there had been as much public concern and agitation directed to this question of housing, which is in their hands, as was being devoted to dismantling, more progress might have been made.

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The refugee problem is a particularly formidable burden and unless properly handled might become a serious political danger. It is in my opinion not only a German but a European problem.

D.-The Federal Chancellor

Apart from my conversation with Dr. Schumacher, I consider my talk with the Federal Chancellor, Dr. Adenauer, to have been one of the most important aspects of my visit. I spent about an hour with Dr. Adenauer in his new Office in Bonn, and a further hour with him at an official luncheon party at which both Herr Arnold, President of the Bundesrat, and Dr. Koehler, President of the Bundestag, were also present.

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I have always considered Dr. Adenauer a wily customer (I still so regard him) and have had little reason hitherto to think him favourably disposed towards I would not go so far as to say that assumption of office has made a changed man of Dr. Adenauer, but it has certainly given him greater confidence and has superficially at any rate broken down some of his impassive reserve, which in the past has given him a suspicious and faintly hostile bearing. His interview with myself was his first official engagement with any ministerial representative of a foreign Government, and I do not think his evident satisfaction at this event was mere politeness: He was in addition extremely anxious to eradicate any impression that he was anti-British and referred with pleasure to your state- ment made to him privately at Ostenwalde that the war was now over and that the British and Germans must work together. His touchiness about the recent tone of the British press regarding election speeches (which was shared by many other Germanage poke fol appears to me as further eviddhageof 50 mwl-found anxiety to earn the good opinion of the Western world. Dr. Adenauer accompanied

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complaints about the British press with the declared intention of dealing ruthlessly with agfghbwg17emism. He begged us not to read the notoriety of the

wild men

of the Right wing by giving them excessive publicity in our press and asked me several times to assure him that the British Government would be ready to grant the Federal Government confidence in advance. He was gratified to receive the Prime Minister's message which I delivered orally at his luncheon, and he took the opportunity to say that he regarded it as evidence of the willing- ness of His Majesty's Government to accord a measure of confidence in advance for which he was asking. The fact that Dr. Koehler twice spoke to me about the message before I left for my next engagement is an indication of the eagerness with which they are looking for favourable signs.

I was careful not to give the impression that we were ready to make a clean sheet of Germany's past actions, but said that a sincere hope existed, though with some reservations, that the new Federal Government would make an advance in Germany's progress towards stable and genuine democracy. The very fact that we had played a leading part in giving practical form to the conception of a Federal Parliament and Government in Germany was a reflection of the con- fidence which the British people were ready to grant to the new Republic, provided that Germany by her actions gave cause for confidence. Dr. Adenauer showed that he appreciated this point by aptly quoting: "Ye shall know them by their fruits." In reply to Adenauer's hope that we would not meet the new Government with clenched fists I said it was our firm hope and desire to see both the militarist and political conceptions of the clenched fist eliminated altogether from European life.

Dr. Adenauer then asked me for my views about Germany's entry into the Council of Europe. He thought that her inability to be represented in the Council of Ministers should not be an obstacle to participation in the Assembly. I deliberately refrained from giving Dr. Adenauer a direct answer on this point and told him that many things which were desirable could not always be achieved to one's own time-table. I, for example, had in July 1948 expressed to him and other German leaders the hope that the Federal Government would become a reality in six months, but the preparations had taken twice as long as this; yet the delay had not detracted from the ultimate value of the achievement. Dr. Adenauer took this point and said he knew how to be patient.

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Indeed, I believe that patience and "a healthy mistrust of everyone quote his own words) are the chief characteristics of the Federal Chancellor. But while he will be patient and prudent, he will also be resolute. In Federal, as opposed to party, office I believe his aims will be to further German interests as much as he can by establishing good relations with Western Europe and the Americans. It would, however, be totally at variance with his political past and present convictions for him to attempt to promote Soviet-German friendship. Communism is repugnant to his strong Catholic faith.

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On the whole Dr. Adenauer impressed me as a shrewd and subtle man with nothing of the demagogue about him. He is, in political experience and intellectual self-confidence, certainly head and shoulders above his colleagues, and for this reason his manner towards them is somewhat patronising and autocratic, and he clearly intends to keep the reins of government firmly in his own hands. is too early to judge yet whether the skill he has shown in holding his team together and in forming a coalition will also characterise the execution of his Government's policy. He complained to me in confidence that when forming his Ministry he had been shocked by "the complete lack of restraint" displayed by some of the aspirants.

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The only member of Dr. Adenauer's Government whom I met during my visit was the Minister of the Interior, Herr Heinemann, the Mayor of Essen. the time I saw him, it was still a secret that he was destined for this post and he said nothing of it to me. He was the only German member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) with whom I discussed dismantling and I was impressed by his apparent ability to appreciate the Allied point of view, though I doubt if it modified his own attitude on this issue. He has done very efficient work as Mayor of Essen and, though a deeply religious man, is not, like the majority of the CDU, a Catholic.

Dr. Adenauer lacks the warm social feeling which distinguishes Herr Arnold, and he may need all his adroitness to keep the Left wing of the CDU from becoming too reste. Herr Arnold told me that he leftfwg7 trade union

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element of the

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1097 able to exert sufficient pressure on the Chancellor to carry through the main points of their social programme. There are, however, other parties further to the Right than the CDU in the Bundestag who will certainly oppose this, and while there are compelling reasons why the SPD and the Left-wing CDU should seek to force the pace on social problems, I am not certain that in the light of the forces comprising the Bundestag they may not be over-estimating their strength.

When one considers the magnitude of the problems facing the new Govern- ment and, with one or two exceptions, the second-rate character of the men who will have to tackle them, it seems to me that the SPD will enjoy a great advan- tage in not being in the Government. If they play their cards well and act as a constructive Opposition they will escape the odium inseparable from official responsibility in the present difficult state of Germany and will gain credit for pressing the Government to adopt a positive progressive policy; thereby winning increasing recognition as the only possible alternative to a Right-wing Govern- ment. If, however, they were to pursue a policy of opposition for opposition's sake they would risk playing into the hands of both the Communists and extreme nationalist elements who are notoriously hostile to parliamentary democracy. The Bundestag does not possess the parliamentary traditions which are a vital element in the successful working of the British House of Commons, and the art of com- promise and conciliation finds little scope in German political life. What is of supreme importance to the achievement of stable democracy in Germany is that the Federal Parliamentary institutions should win the confidence of the people and not fall into disrepute by frustration from within. I found an anxiety that the new Parliament should be enabled to work effectively on the lines of the British model, because it is recognised that the way in which it operates and the results which it achieves will be used both within Germany and abroad as a yard- stick to measure the present strength and future prospects of the new democratic Republic.

26th September, 1949.

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