"It's All Settled"

Everything seemed to be going wrong at Bonn. The Social Democratic Party bitterly fought the Western Powers' "interference" in the work of the constitutional convention because it tended to impose too many limitations upon German sovereignty. The Western Allies, cried the Socialists, were trying to create a federal republic with such a weak central government that it could never properly govern. The Socialists were equally mad at their fellow Germans in the Christian Democratic Union, which was stringing along with the plans for a weaker government. At a Socialist meeting in Hannover last week, gaunt, one-armed, one-legged party leader Kurt Schumacher lashed out at the Western Powers as well as the Christian Democrats. "The Socialist Party," he shouted, "is a party of cooperation, not a party of submissiveness."

The Christian Democrats replied by accusing the Socialists of "sad, unGerman, undemocratic party politics."

Then things began to happen. With Russian pressure for a new four-power conference and abandonment of the proposed West German state (see above), the West could not afford to have the Bonn talks collapse now. First, the West offered important concessions strengthening the proposed central government's legislative and fiscal powers; this was designed to pacify the Socialists. The wires buzzed between Washington and U.S. officials in Germany. Next, the State Department's old Germany hand, Robert Murphy, left his desk at half a day's notice, flew to Germany. After days of conferences, Schumacher's Socialists finally let themselves be persuaded to accept the Western Powers' concessions.

This week the German leaders met with the three Military Governors in the ex-SHAEF war room in Frankfurt's big Headquarters Building. After six turbulent hours, General Clay emerged with a broad smile. Said he: "It's all settled." He specified: "There are no remaining differences either between Germans or ourselves or between the German political parties."

Clay and Murphy hope that the constitution for the "Federal Republic of Germany" will go to the eleven West German states for ratification by May 15. In the face of Russian maneuvers, the Western Allies and the Western Germans at last presented a united front.

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