THE TABLET A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER AND REVIEW

PRO ECCLESIA DEI, PRO REGE ET PATRIA

VOL. 196, No. 5753

FOUNDED IN 1840

LONDON, AUGUST 26th, 1950

SIXPENCE PUBLISHED AS A NEWSPAPER

THE LIVING VOICE The Teaching Office of the Church THE ENCYCLICAL “HUMANI GENERIS”

Some Preliminary Extracts

THE ASSUMPTION IN THE MIND OF THE UNIVERSAL CHURCH

Some Account of the World-Wide Desire for the Definition A LETTER FROM ROME A LETTER FROM STRASBOURG

The English Boy Scouts Arrive

The Decline of British Influence

A PILGRIMAGE TO LOUGH DERG

An Impressive Scene of Voluntary Penance

THE GERMANS AND KOREA S HORTLY after the Berlin congress of the Communistcontrolled Socialist Unity Party (S.E.D.), Herr Walter Ulbricht, Deputy Premier of Eastern Germany, gave instructions to the Party’s “Active” on how the decisions of the Congress should be put into practice. He devoted especial attention to Korea, and impressed upon the Party’s propagandists that they should always stress the similarity between the situation in Korea and in Germany. It is quite wrong, he said, to think that the successes of the North Korean forces proved that war preparations had been made by the North Korean Government : what had happened was that the war preparations of South Korea had been disclosed to the North by workers and peasants in good time, thus giving the North Korean Government a chance to prepare against the assault by the South. American leaders, like Hitler before them, had failed to recognize the strength o f the people’s movement :

general war ; but the American military experts admit that it could outmatch the few Allied divisions which are at present in Western Germany, and, besides, there exists the Korean precedent, which shows, according to Ulbricht and his Russian masters, that aggressions on the Korean pattern are not real aggressions, but that they belong to the category of civil wars. This is the way in which M. Malik argues in the Security Council, and in the same way the East German Communists tell their Western opponents what they have in store for them.

It is not surprising that, under these circumstances, the West Germans feel defenceless. Dr. Adenauer speaks of their “despairing attitude,” which, indeed, needs immediate bolstering. Otherwise there exists a real danger that a considerable part o f the West German population will accept their conquest by Communism as inevitable, and individuals will look for their personal safety in the Communist ranks. Dr. Adenauer’s Proposal

“The lesson of Korea was obvious : in Germany, too, the puppet Government in Bonn would sooner or later be swept away by the will o f the people, and patriotic forces would fight with all their strength to liquidate the nests of war provocation, as was now happening in South Korea.” This interpretation o f the Korean aggression by the leading Communist o f Eastern Germany may constitute either the ideological prelude to a similar aggression against the Federal Republic or just a part o f the new propaganda campaign by which the West German democrats are to be frightened into submission, or both. Whatever is its real meaning, this and similar utterances are likely to have a considerable effect among the Germans of the Federal Republic, who can all too easily envisage how the Korean aggression could be repeated on German soil. Their own part of Germany is practically defenceless, and yet the Eastern Communists keep on accusing the Americans and the Bonn Government of building illegal armies and of planning an attack against the peaceful East. They know, too, that, in the words of Herr Ulbricht, the Eastern Government is preparing against this assault : the Eastern People’s Police represents an army o f several hundred thousand men—according to some reports it is already 500,000 men strong—and its name is only a thin camouflage for the resurrected German armed forces, which are trained by Russians but also by former Generals of the Reichswehr, which possess all kinds o f arms, including the new heavy Russian tanks, and which are now complemented by a small but efficient air force and naval force. Furthermore, the People’s Police represents only a striking force, for which the Communists have succeeded in building substantial reserves in the form of the Free German Youth Movement, whose members receive a good para-military training.

True, this force would not be strong enough to win a

Dr. Adenauer did not present his proposal for the creation o f a West German defence force, equal in size, equipment and training to the East German People’s Police, as a formal request to the three High Commissioners. However, when he explained the details o f his plan to them he emphasized his belief that Russian plans for aggression in Germany were more advanced and the position more critical than had been generally believed, and he expressed his hope that the spread o f defeatism in Western Germany will soon be stopped by effective measures.

His proposal was received sympathetically, both in this country and in the United States, although no decision could be taken at this stage. The main opponents o f Western German rearmament will be found in Western Germany itself, and not only amongst the Communists. Since the end of the war the Socialists have made vigorous objections to any form of rearmament, and Dr. Schumacher has already rejected Dr. Adenauer’s new plan on behalf o f his Social Democratic Party. The Government, however, hope that this rejection is not final, and that the Socialists, if the Chancellor keeps them closely informed of all discussions with the Western Powers concerning problems o f defence, may cooperate with the Government, instead of creating a most dangerous domestic crisis which would serve only the Russians. It is not easy to understand how the German Social Democrats could, in the position in which their country finds itself today, maintain objections to such basic defence measures as are contemplated under Dr. Adenauer’s plan ; however, nobody can tell how far Dr. Schumacher will allow himself to be influenced by his personal resentments, or how many o f his followers are, in fact, fellow-travellers, who