Guns or Brooms?

The U.S. Army was having servant trouble. High Commissioner John J. McCloy and the State Department have long wanted the Army to give up the 24,000 German servants who cook and scrub for the families of officers and noncoms in the occupation forces--with their wages paid by Germany. The Army would not hear of it. U.S. officers' and men's wives might have to do menial work, and that would have an "unfortunate effect on prestige and morale." Moreover, explained the Army solemnly, wives in outlying areas often have to travel 50 miles to buy groceries at PXs and, without servants to stay home and guard the houses, burglaries would skyrocket.

The Army retired slowly from one argument to another. Last week, hoarse and out-talked, it capitulated. The Army surrendered not only its free servants, but its plush special vacation trains, and its right to virtually free rides (10% of the standard fare) on German trains. Savings to the Bonn government (and indirectly to U.S. taxpayers who support the Bonn economy): $11 million on the servants, another $17 million on the trains.

Germans, who are being asked to raise an army of twelve divisions for Western Europe's defense, would no longer have to pay for their conquerors' comfort. Said a U.S. State Department official: "It is a question of Army maids or German soldiers to help defend the West."

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