FEDERAL GERMAN STATE

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24904, 18 June 1946, Page 5

FEDERAL GERMAN STATE

CHRISTIAN DEMOCRAT LEADER’S VIEW PREFERRED TO SPLITTING UP OF COUNTRY , LONDON, June 16. The leader of the German Christian Democratic Union, Jakob Kaiser, declared himself in favour of a federal Germany as preferable to splitting up Germany into separate States, reports Reuter’s correspondent in Berlin. This is the first time that- the leader of any big German anti-Fascist party has declared in favour of federalism. • Kaiser denounced rumours of war at present current in Germany as criminal. He said that war between the East and the West would mean the atomisation of Germany. “We must be a bridge between the East and the West for the sake of Germany and Europe,” he declared. The correspondent adds that Kaiser’s whole speech reflected the anxiety with which Germans are awaiting the results of the Foreign Ministers’ conference.

Kaiser said: “We have only one wish —not to have boundaries drawn through our living heart. We are suffering greatly through the wounds inflicted on the East. The severance of the Ruhr and the Rhine from Germany would mean cutting right through Germany’s heart.” The leader of the Bavarian Christian Social Union Party, Joseph Miller, said tha't the only difference that had existed between his party and the Christian Democratic Union had been over federalism. The two parties could now unite.