WHEN Hitler's Reich collapsed and the problem of feeding the
daily increasing population of the Western zones was faced squarely,
the voices of revenge and Draconic peace in Great Britain and the
United States yielded to a new policy based on humanitarian, eco-
nomic, and political considerations and on the growing mistrust of
the intentions of the Soviet Union. The Western Allies wanted to
reconstruct a stable, democratic, and demilitarized Germany whose
government would be able to live in peace and without economic
misery. While the implementation of such an aim was compatible
with a delay in the re-establishment of a national government and
with some dismantling of industries, economic looting and political
isolation of their zone by the Russians would wreck the Allies' plans
if allowed to continue unchecked. Anglo-American policy was de-
signed to promote the unification of the country by reopening the
frontier question at the earliest opportunity in favor of a revision in
order to exert pressure upon the U.S.S.R. and Poland. ¹

While the threat of permanent Russian domination of the Balkans
and the Danubian basin was the primary concern of Western politi-
cians in 1945, British Foreign Minister Ernest Bevin stated un-
equivocally that the Oder-Neisse Line was a problem yet to be solved
rather than a question definitely settled at the Potsdam Conference.

One of the great problems which still faces us is that of Poland
and I know there is some feeling about the extent of the area
which has been included in the Polish zone. The question of the

-154-