Word: ruhr
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This was the high purpose of a six-nation agreement announced last week for the control of Germany's Ruhr-the dark, smoke-grimed valley that cradles the industrial heart of Europe. The text of the agreement was simultaneously given out in the capitals of the U.S. and the five Western Union nations-Britain, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxembourg...
...agreement sets up an International Ruhr Authority on which the six signatories and the new government of West Germany (now being constructed at Bonn) will be represented. The authority will decide what part of the Ruhr's coal, coke and steel should be kept at home for the good of Germany, and what part should be sent abroad for the good of Europe. Together with a Military Security Board (representing the U.S., Britain and France), the authority will watch what the Germans make and what they do with it, check them if they get out of hand...
...State Department has asserted that German control is the only way to hike Ruhr production--which has nonetheless been rising steadily all along. Supporters of the official position minimize French fears as historical nervousness that is now outdated. The unofficial aim is directly at Russia: anything that will jazz up Ruhr output is desirable, even if it alienates Frenchmen and all those who remember the terrible years when the foundations of German tyranny in Europe were the factories of the Ruhr...
...United States and Great Britain have offered the French a seat on the council which will nominally supervise the trustees during the period before the Germans elect a government. This "concession' is practically an insult. The French see international control of the Ruhr going out of the window. They know that when the future German government takes over the industries--or leaves them in the hands of cartels--Germany will become the most powerful nation on the Continent, outside of Russia...
...London, the United States, Great Britain, France, and the Benelux trio are now meeting for the purpose of creating an international authority to govern distribution of the Ruhr's coal, iron, and steel production. But the authority will be useless with the Ruhr owned and operated by the German government-to-be. Future allocations will depend entirely on the policy of that government...