POLITICS IN GERMANY

Chronicle (Levin), 23 May 1946, Page 8

POLITICS IN GERMANY

(Sijecial Corfesuonclent.)

SCRAMBLE FOR INTER-PARTY AliLIANGES

(Received AYednesday, 7 p.m. LOND.ON, kJLay 22. A break in tlie lull of poiitical activity in tlie Britisli Zone of Germany, is likely as tlie result of tlie failure at Paris to reach an agreement over Germany, says tlie Tinies ' Herford correspondent. There are unobtrusive indications, he says, that -the fruitless intfc.rnational discussions on tlie future of the Euhr, and the airing of jplans to develop the western zones irresxi'ecti-ve of events beyond the Elbe,' are leaving the foundations for a poiitical homogeneity that till recently few .wouLd have thought possible in disrupted Germany. Symptomatic of the new .curr.ent is the scramble for inter-party alliaiicps that is now in progress. While som,e of this may be discounted as pre-election i nianoeuvring, it has been observed that the rank and file of Germans wlro are yet to declare their party aHegiances, are apparently favouralily impressed by the praetical .examples of inter-party coop.eration they see m nominated local Government eouneils. It is perhaps not withou't signiiiean.ee that at the recent national confegen.ee of t]i,e Social Democratic Parfy, Ivurt S.ehumacher reeeived much gi'.eater support in his demands for an integral Gerniany in the running of which Germans would have a greater share, than for his hitter attacks on other parties, in xfarticular the K.P.D. (Communists). Beyond the immediate field of poiitical controyersy there are "many examples of a united effort to ov.ercome present olistacles. In many cities of the Ruhr four main youth moyemeuts are working in harness while in Westphalia, tlie traditional eockpit of religious differences, Catholics. and Protestants are frequently sharing ehurches. 4 Opposition to a poiitical detaehment of the Ruhr to changes in the western frontiers, is expressed With candour in all party organs and it is with no less concerted alarm that responsible G.erman politicians contemplate the shar-pc-ning of inter-zonal dilferenees. Exceptions are being made for the s.omewhat ethereal liberalism of the Free Democratic Party and unpopular Rhjneland Separatists. There are, howev.er, other r.easons for the tendency towards poiitical homogeneity. The mov.e responsible elepient of the population is bcc.oming aware that hunger and the pace at which soeial and economiij refqrnis arc being earried out, are eausing a marked revival of reactionarv tendenci.es. Few responsible observers here, continues the Tinies' cbrfespondent, hav.e any doubt that until Germau energy can be direeted to , carrying out a more dynamic programme of reform for the j reshaping of the national life, threats on Reich unitv will weaken all legal poiitical parties and foster reaction. There is no laclc of evidence of aetivity on the extreme right. Moreover, there are signs of extremist infiltration into the Christian Democrat Union and centre which, with the baclcing of the church, are becoming less and less antiXazi and by clinging to the old order, less and less democratic.