-Anglo-US moves ‘end Potsdam’

By ISRAEL EPSTEIN

Three years ago President Tru-
man, Premier’ Joseph Stalin and
Prime Minister. Clement Attlee
agreed at Potsdam to demilitarize,
denazity and democratize conquer-
ed Germany, to make her pay rep-
arations to her victims, and to
keep her under Allied occupation
till these objectives were achieved.
While Germany was to be divided
into. American, Soviet, British and
French zones for occupation pur-
Poses, her financial and economic
unity was to be preserved under
joint 4-power control. When the
Occupying troops finally left after
@ peace treaty-a united but demo-
cratic Germany was to remain.

Since then, the objectives of Pots-
dam have been steadily whittled
down. The western powers now ask
for a restored Germany as “the
workshop of Europe” with most of
the old German big business trusts
judged guiltless of Nazism and
made beneficiaries of Marshall

plan grants. The last Big Four for-
eign ministers’ conference broke
up when U.S, Secretary of State
George C. Marshall refused repara-
tions to east European victims of
Hitler’s invasion. A plan for a sep-
arate west German government is
being carried through.

The last act of the drama was
the introduction of a separate
currency in the western zone.
Admitting that Germany still did
not acknowledge “any stain of
responsibility for the ruin
wrought by Hitler,” the British
‘financial organ, the Economist,
stated June 21 that the western
powers had nonetheless decided
to promote her to an ally. The
Economist stressed that this made
“the bisection of Germany com-
plete.” It titled its editorial “The
End of Potsdam”,

A day earlier, Marshall Sokoloy-
sky, Soviet commander in. Berlin,
also said the Potsdam agreement
had been violated and Germany

“finally severed”, Anything on
which a Russian representative and
a British big business weekly. can
agree hardly admits of any other
interpretation.

However, while the Economist
hailed the split, Sokolovsky want-
ed to return to the Potsdam agree-
ment. “A uniform all-German cur-
rency reform based on a 4-Power
agreement was entirely possible
and necessary,’ he declared. This
was reiterated on June 24 by the
foreign ministers of Russia, Czecho-
slovakia, Poland, Yugoslavia, Hun-
gary, Romania, Bulgaria and AI-
bania, who called for joint com-
pletion of Big Four tasks in Ger-
many followed by an early peace
treaty and end to the occupation.

Sokolovsky then blockaded all
western land and river traffic to
Berlin which is surrounded by the
Soviet zone on all sides. He also
withdrew from the 4-power body
that ran the German capital on
grounds that it made no sense
without a joint policy.

The fact is that the western cur-
rency reform gave the Russians
little choice in the matter, The
Conservative London Times, Brit-
ain’s leading paper, said editorial-
ly June 21:

“The Russians were bound to
take protective action if their own
marks (the currency hitherto in
use in all Germany) were not to
be further inflated by imports of
old discarded marks from the
west, If the positions had "been re-
versed, if the Russians had been
the first to reform the currency
in their zone, the western authori-
ties would have had in emergency
to act essentially as the Russians
have acted.”

Since then, the Russians too have
put in a new currency. The fact
that they had to do it by putting
special stamps on the previous
notes, while the west had new
money already printed, lends cre-
dence to Soviet charges that the

western powers had been preparing

for a monetary spjit even while
carrying on joint discussions. To-
day, with two currencies, Germany
is like two countries—needing an
inter-zonal exchange rate, customs
barriers and so on.

Significantly, the nation most
frightened by these developments
is France, which sees west Ger-
many favored over her as an ally
of Britain and the U.S., and fears
renewed German conquest as a re-
sult. The Economist admitted that
renewed German aggression was
“a gamble,” but did not seem per-
turbed. The Wall Street Journal
rejoiced because “the trusteeship
which the allies created for Berlin
was nonsensical to begin with.”

But the French, as a Wall Street
Journal correspondent frankly re-
Ported, “will be on the lookout,
however, dim the prospect now
seems, for . a Possibility of
agaii handling Germany on a 4
power basis. If they detect such a
Possibility, they will . . . grab it
with both hands.”

Dewey nomination promoted by
chief U.S. monopoly interests

By RICHARD SASULY

—WASHINGTON

“For at least six months before the national convention of the Republican Party it
was clear that Governor Dewey and Senator Vandenberg were the main choice of the

inner circle of monopoly and

rounds of the fight for presidential nomination.

finance capital.

Dewey was the choice for the opening
Vandenberg

represented a strategic re-

serve. No large-scale campaign was put up for him to interfere with the operation of the

Dewey machine. But he was avail-
able if the convention had been
deadlocked between Dewey and the
Midwestern forces around Senator
Taft. As events proved, the. Van-
denberg reserve was not needed,

Naturally, there is not the slight-
est element of anti-capitalism in
the position of Taft and his middle
Western industrialist backers. Sen-
ator Taft’s group simply represent-
ed old-fashioned U.S. conservatism,
Only gropingly aware of Wall
Street’s interest in foreign markets
and investments.

It is impossible to speak intelli-
Sently of the personal philosophy
of Governor Dewey. None has ever
been visible. The man is a Pure
Compound of personal ambition and

subservience to the more advanced
dogma of Wall Street,

So far as can be seen, Dewey’s
only truly personal qualities are
ruthless ambition and a priggish
conceit which irritated most of the
press and a majority of convention
delegates as well. His actions are
determined entirely on the basis of
what will most efficiently promote
the interests of his Wall Street
backers.

Dewey first attracted public no-
tice for prosecuting gangsters in
New York. Even at that stage, how-
ever, his investigations were care-
fully tied in with attempts of the
Republican Party te »reak the
Democratic machine in New York.

Se nn

British pact

aids Franco

—LONDON

Franco Spain will receive 750,000 tons of British coal
annually under a new trade agreement just signed in

‘Madrid between

The agreement is bound to bolster Franco’s economy

the British
Franco’s fascist dictatorship.

Labor government and

in more ways than just providing it with coal. It simul-

- taneously opens up British

€xports, which will pay for the coal in part.

empire markets to Spanish
Trade:

with Britain thus becomes one of the main financial sup-
Ports of the Franco regime in its fight against the Spanish

People.

British imports from Franco Spain during the first -
three mpnths of 1948 were worth $54 million more than
during the same period last year.. The new agreement
Provides for a further doubling of trade between the two
Countries, to bring it to between $300 and $400 million

annually.

‘ Since Britain is dependent on Marshall plan dollars
and cannot carry through trade pacts of which the U.S.

disapproves, the unprotested

agreement with Franco also

Tepresents an indirect U.S. subsidy to Franco. It is note-
Worthy that U.S. pressure has, prevented extension of

Titish trade with eastern Europe, which has more pro-
ducts to offer Britain than Spain. :

au

Carefully watching over the Dew-
ey interests at the Philadelphia
convention was Winthrop Aldrich

.of the Chase National Bank, pivot

of the Rockefeller interests and one
of the main centers of U.S. corpor-
ate control.

The decisive break toward Dewey
at the convention was engineered
by a Pennsylvania group represent-
ing the Manufacturers Association
of Pennsylvania which in turn is
dominated by the heavy iron and
coal interests.

The selection of Governor Earl
Warren of California as Dewey’s
running mate reflected the fact that
after four successive Roosevelt
victories. no politician can win a
national election without putting
up a show of liberalism, Warren is
the Republican Party’s false front
of liberalism for 1948. Actually his
liberalism is purely demagogic and
was forced on him by the fact that
he became California’s governor in
1942 when ideas of social welfare
and progress were firmly entrench-
ed in that state.

Warren also gained his first poli-
tical notoriety as a prosecuting at-
torney. During the late thirties he
was responsible for railroading
to jail three maritime union leaders

.|who were framed on a murder

charge.

Worthless Reichmark

This German oldster is using a now worthless Reichsmark to,
light his pipe, as perhaps he also did nearly 30 years ago. But

the big German monopolists who

backed Hitler, with their Ameri-

can and British connections, and mot the people will be the chief
beneficiaries of the currency reform carried out in the western

zone of Germany.

Newsguild scores firing for political beliefs

—SAN FRANCISCO.

The CIO American Newspaper
Guild, in convention here, has up-
held overwhelmingly the right to
hold a job regardless of political
belief. By a landslide roll call vote
of 273 to 18 1-3, the Guild conven-
tion defeated a minority resolution
which would have upheld the dis-
charge of Tom Buchanan, Washing-
ton Star reporter, who was fired
when he professed membership in
the Communist party.

Instead, the convention adopted
a majority report which declared:
“The ANG refuses to condone the
dismissal of members from em-
' ployment during competent per-
formance of their duties” and
asked the Washington local “be
urged to process” Buchanan’s
grievance,

The local has to date refused to
process the grievance. The mem-
bership of the local voted against
‘processing it in a referendum. Bu-
chanan appealed to the convention.

The majority report, which was
adopted by an overwhelming voice
vote after a proposed amendment
condemning communism had been
shouted down, said further, “The
convention declared it does not
consider that political belief—in the
absence of a showing of overt acts
of misfeance—constitutes just and
sufficient grounds for discharge and
admonishes all locals that any such
discharges should be resisted to
the fullest.”

The language merely “urging” the
Washington local to process the
grievance was milder than Buchan-

an supporters had hoped for, Re-

Hable sources said the Guild general
counsel was responsible for the mild
wording, contending anything
stronger would be a violation of
local “autonomy.”

Delegates, however, refused to
accept an amendment which would
have stricken the “urge” action
paragraph from the resolution.

The rejected minority report,
signed by two members of the
Washington Guild and two other
delegates, declared specifically that
“this discharge was properly not
resisted” and contained a Mundt-
Nixon type of denunciation of the
U.S. Communist Party as “an agen-
cy of a foreign government.”

The convention also adopted a
collective bargaining report calling
for equal job opportunities for Ne-
groes and full recognition of the

Negro press.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—JULY 9, 1948—PAGE 3