§ 2.40 p.m.
LORD SALTOUNMy Lords, I beg to ask His Majesty's Government a question of which I have given private notice—to ask His Majesty's Government whether it is true that the Allied Control Commission have ordered the officers commanding the occupied areas of Germany to destroy or deface German war memorials including those of the 1914–1918 war.
§ THE UNDER-SECRETARY OF STATE FOR WAR (LORD NATHAN)My Lords, the Occupying Powers are pledged to the complete elimination of Nazi and militaristic doctrines and influences. In pursuance of this pledge the Allied Control Authority in Berlin on May 13 signed a directive for the liquidation of German military and Nazi memorials and museums, which—I quote from the directive—tend to preserve and keep alive the German military tradition, to revive militarism or to commemorate the Nazi party, or which are of such a nature as to glorify incidents of war.
The directive applies to memorials arising out of the 1914–1918 war as well as of the war just ended. The British representative agreed that the operative date should be 1914 in deference to the strongly expressed wishes of our Allies; indeed, there was some desire that the directive should extend still further back in time. The directive contains two important exceptions. Monuments of artistic merit will not be removed or destroyed, but only offensive features 206 glorifying Nazi or militaristic creeds. Similarly, gravestones or their equivalent are to be spared. Certainly the British authorities in interpreting this directive will not seek to remove those memorials which consist of little more than a roll of the fallen.
§ LORD NATHANIt means this. Where there are memorials, such for instance as those which we know on many of our village greens, which set out a list of those of the village who have fallen in the war, and which are little more than a roll of the fallen, no action will be taken.
LORD SALTOUNSince the destruction of war memorials, especially of the 1914–1918 war, does not do any harm to the Germans, so far as I can see, but does involve the reputation of every Englishman throughout the whole world, and as the matter is one of urgency, I do press His Majesty's Government to allow me to raise this matter on a very early date, before it has gone too far to be adjusted.