International: Untempting Offer

While Western foreign offices were still mulling over the 13,000 words of Malenkov's H-bomb speech (TIME, Aug. 17), another fat 14-page note arrived unexpectedly from Moscow. In it Moscow proposed:

¶ German peace conference, to meet within six months.

¶ A temporary, all-German government to prepare the ground for "free, all-German elections."

¶ A Big Four agreement canceling German reparations (which the U.S. gave up years ago though the others still receive them) and limiting occupation costs to 5% of the German budget.

Couched in vague phrases, easy to twist or disown, the Soviet suggestions were intended to embarrass Konrad Adenauer in the Sept. 6 West German election. But they were not likely to succeed, since the snags stuck out like Red army bayonets in East Berlin. An "all-German government" meant the fusing of the strong and stable Bonn regime with the Communist cabal that East Germans repudiated in their June 17 riots. "Free elections" would not be held for at least six months, during which the Reds presumably hoped to grab enough levers of power so that they could run the elections as they please; special arrangements must be made to include "democratic" elements (Communist fronts) and to exclude "fascists and militarists" (antiCommunists) from the all-German government. As for German participation in EDC, that was out. A free Germany, in Malenkov's view, ought not to be free enough to choose its own friends.