Hand Of Friendship To West German Republic

Chronicle (Levin), 10 September 1949, Page 5

Hand Of Friendship To West German Republic

Received Friday, 7 p.m. BERLIN, September 9. General Sir Brian Robertson, British High Commissioner, today held out the: hand of friendship to the now West German Republic, "with the full authority of the British Foreign Secretary." In his first policy statement as High Commissioner the former Military Governor said: "I stand for the removal of the aftermath of bitterness the war has left behind — in Germany against the outside -storld and in other countries against Germany." He told the second annual Congress of German Trade Unions at Hanover: "We want the new German Parliament to sueceed. " He said he hoped the new West German Government would suppress unruly elements. "Ko sensible person should resent the revival of a proper national spirit, but there is a wide difference between a proper pride in one'a country and bitter aggressive hate ugainst other countries." General Robertson said that allied dismantling in Germany did not represent a serious blow to its economy. He denied German accusations that the allied dismantling programme was serving eompetitive interests, especially on the part of Britain. He did not believe that dismantling was responsible for increasing unemployment in Western Germany exeept perhaps in some local cases, and in such cases the unemployment was only temporaiy.