Phase One

A clear explanation of U.S. procedure in Germany came last week from General Eisenhower's No. 1 deputy for the occupation, tough-minded Lieut. General Lucius Du Bignon Clay. Said he:

"I would like to make it perfectly clear that the government which we propose to set up in Germany is going to be a military government and that the Germans are going to know that it is a military government. We have enough time later to consider the long-range terms of Germany and the regeneration of the German people.

"Our first objective is to smash whatever remaining power Germany may have with which to develop a future war potential, to drive the Nazis out of power and keep them out. War criminals will pay for their crimes with their lives and their liberties, their sweat and blood. That is the first objective of military government in Germany.

"When that has been accomplished we will begin to worry about long-range policies and long-range treatment of Germany, and we hope that you don't get too worried about the long-range problem without first giving us an opportunity of solving the short-range problems. . . ." General Eisenhower's SHAEF will be the central administrative agency for the U.S., British and French zones until a Group Control Council, also including the Russians, takes over and coordinates administration under the Allied Control Commission.

The Team. The U.S. team for execution of "Plan Eclipse" (TIME, May 21) began to take shape.

P: Brigadier General Cornelius W. Wickersham, in civil life a big-time New York lawyer, commandant of the School for Military Government at Charlottesville, Va. and one of the chief U.S. occupation planners, will be one of General Clay's men Friday. Another: Lewis W. Douglas, onetime Arizona Congressman, Director of the Budget, and veteran of the early New Deal, who will function without an Army commission.

P: Major General Oliver Echols, troubleshooting Regular Army officer who had much to do with boosting U.S. plane production, will tackle the mammoth administrative task of directing local government, public health, safety and welfare, education, religion and all communications.

P: Brigadier General John A. Appleton, former Pennsylvania Railroad executive, will govern transport, and Brigadier General William H. Draper, former New York investment banker, will take over the vast economic section.

This team is to run the U.S. part of Germany during the phase of military occupation. One of its civilian members, Ambassador Robert Murphy, presumably will loom larger as the occupation progresses toward its civilian phase.

No comparable light had been shed on their administrative plans by either the Russians or the British. There were some signs that London thought the U.S. was attempting too much. Winston Churchill strengthened this impression last week when he told the House of Commons : "It is our aim that the Germans should administer their country in obedience to Allied directions; we have no intention of undertaking the burden of administering Germany ourselves." Popular nominees for Eisenhower's British opposite number: Field Marshal Montgomery, with whom Churchill conferred last week, and Field Marshal Alexander, who was amply occupied in Yugoslavia (see The Nations).

War Crimes. The Russians, doing nothing to assist in a joint handling of war criminals, yammered incessantly at U.S. and British delays. Belatedly but efficiently, the U.S. proceeded with its prosecution plans.

Chief U.S. Prosecutor Robert H. Jackson will have three top assistants: Major General William ("Wild Bill") Donovan, head of the cloak-&-dagger OSS; U.S. Assistant Attorney General Francis M. Shea; and railway attorney Sidney S. Alderman. They have a lot to do:

P: First, according to the U.S. conception, a war-crime code must be formulated. The British feared that Nazi criminals could not be properly tried under existing codes, wanted to punish them by a political fiat (as Napoleon was handled). Jackson and his aides believed that a proper code could be drafted from present international laws, and that in the long run a firm but fair trial procedure would be more effective.

P: A special, international tribunal must be formed.

P: The U.S. Government wants to let the prosecutors decide who should or should not be tried. On these and other questions, the other interested governments were still to be heard from.

Reparations. Oilman Edwin W. Pauley, the No. 1 U.S. reparations man, said in Washington that Germany should be stripped of all capacity to make armaments, but not completely de-industrialized. When he and his colleagues join the Big Three reparations commission in Moscow, they will probably find the Russians in general agreement with this view. But they will also find a basic, significant difference in the Russian and U.S.-British approach to the reparations problem. The U.S. and Britain regard reparations largely as a means to.an end--the pacification of Germany. The Russians are interested in reparations for the sake of reparations. To them (and to some of the smaller nations) German labor and materials have a value entirely apart from the effect on. Germany.

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