RUHR REGION NOT COMMUNIST-MINDED

Grey River Argus, 20 September 1948, Page 7

RUHR REGION NOT COMMUNIST-MINDED

(By Reece Smith, N.Z. Kemsley Emipre journalist). DUSSELDORF, July 22. As Russia puts 'the screws' on the Western Powers in Berlin it might be expected she should also thrust at them in the Ruhr, industrial heart of Germany and at first sight receptive ground for anti-British propaganda. The workers of the Ruhr have seen their factories and homes flattened by Bomber Command, are still living in stark monuments to those nights, and are only slowly finding something more in life than bleak exist 1 - ence. Three days in the Ruhr showed me a body of hopeless, comfortless workers to whom Communist progaganda could easily appeal, if only because any change _ could hardly be for the worse. This conclusion was false. According to the occupation authorities, who are by no means unaware of the dangers which would rise from labour troubles in the Ruhr when the valley is keeping Germany alive, the Communists are quiescent. There is no Russian activity in parallel with the Berlin effort. Not that there are no Communists among the coal and steel workers. The complete absence of avowed Communists would be regarded gravely, as the presumption would be that they were anonymous, for some suspicious purpose. The strongest block against which Communists have always dashed their efforts is the Roman Catholic Church. The Ruhr is a traditionally strong Catholic area, thus nullifying much of the usual advantage of an industrial zone from the Communist point of view. The second safeguard, according to the acting Regional Commissioner for North Rhine and Westphalia, Major-General W. H. A. Bishop, is that the miners, as heavy industry workers, get special rations. The better fed and housed people were, he said, the less chance of their being incited. The Ruhr miners were rasonably well off beside other German workers, though the special ration was not everything it might seem. By the time a miner had taken it home to share among his family his personal advantage was not so great. At the same time the feeding Oi the miners is steadily improving and with this improvement recedes the possibility externally inspired unrest in the nffnes. Repatriated prisoners of war and other persons from the Eastern zone of Germany have returned home to the Ruhr thoroughly indoctrinated, in some cases, but not in numbers which worry the authorities. Stories circulate of indoctrination courses in the Eastern zone to which Germans —even some former strong Nazis—are recruiting for a three-week course before coming back to the mines, or other key industries. No doubt there is such high power indoctrination, but the principle can hardlv be questioned in face of the British and American attempts to indoctrinate Germans in Western democracy. Those who have fallen under the Russian spell are easy to pick, according to officers who sort out Germans arriving from the east, and they are directed to employment where their efforts will be of greater benefit to Germany than to Russia. British security forces have their eye on the mines, and it is doubtful whether any big industrial surprises can be sprung by the Communists. A third factor working against the Russians in the Ruhr are the tales returning Germans bring from the other side of the Iron Curtain. Bludgeoned with propaganda for years, the Germans might look sideways at the British decrying of the Russians, but when their own relatives and neighbours return to tell the tale, they listen. Admiration of the Soviet way does not grow apace as a result. To be fair, it must be said that the traffic through the Iron Curtain is not all in the one direction. The. British and Americans do not guard unduly zealously against unauthorised transits, but the Russians, since the introduction ofl the new Western currency, had guards posted thick against currency smugglers. Germans with homes and families in the eastern zone still esteem it worth their while to get back there, and there is no suggestion that such Germans as do remain do so under duress. An illustration of some thing or other surely lies in the fact that the Russians find it necessary to keep a rifle and bayonet check on who comes and goes from their zone, while the British and Americans are more or less perfunctory. The nature of this illustration will in all likelihood, reflect nothing more novel than the (illustrator’s established political or military persuasions.