HC Deb 30 July 1947 vol 441 cc48-9W
18. Mr. Platts-Mills

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he is aware that the level-of-industry plan for the joint Anglo-U.S. zone of Germany provides for an annual steel production of 12,000,000 tons; and whether he is satisfied that such an increase in German industrial production, concentrated on the Ruhr heavy industry, is not a breach of inter-allied agreement.

Mr. Bevin

The answer to the first part of the Question is "No." The plan worked out by the British and United States authorities in Germany is still under consideration by the two Governments. As regards the second part of the Question, the position is that the acceptance by His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom of the level of industry plan agreed by the four occupying powers in March, 1946, was conditional on the fulfilment of the other provisions of the Potsdam Agreement, including in particular the attainment of economic unity in Germany. It became clear at the Moscow Conference that this latter objective could not be reached in the near future, and His Majesty's Government and the United States Government, in accordance with their frequently expressed intentions, instructed their authorities in Germany to consider what changes it would be necessary to make in the 1946 plan, having due regard to considerations of security and reparations, to their own financial commitments in Germany and to the desirability of Germany making her contribution to the economic recovery of Europe. In the circumstances the question of a breach of an inter-allied agreement does not in my view arise.