Slow Road

When Allied occupation forces moved into Germany in 1945, they all agreed that I. G. Farben, world's biggest chemical empire and a mainstay of the Nazi war machine, should be broken up. But they disagreed on how the job should be done. Since then, proposals to dispose finally of the 169 I. G. Farben companies in the West zone* have never gone beyond the talk stages.

Last week the Council of the Allied High Commission began acting as though it meant business. It ordered Farben's German properties broken up into an unspecified number of "economically sound and independent companies [to] ensure dispersion of ownership and control and promote competition . . ." The new law provided that no buyer or group of buyers would be allowed to merge two or more of the companies without an O.K. from the Allied High Commission, and it barred war criminals as well as major Nazi offenders from taking part in control or management of any of the companies.

But actual breakup still seemed a long way off. On the slow road ahead, the High Commission has to work through mountains of technical procedure. It has not even totted up Farben's assets--a preliminary to any sale.

*Apparently no such problem faced Russia in the East zone; the U.S. suspects that Russia simply seized Farben's 45 companies.

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