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.The author also states that there were already 33,600 acres inthe French zone crying for reforestation; 75,000 in North Rhine-land in the British zone, and 41,000 in the United States zone.The Germans have not only suffered a severe diminution of theirforests through British and French cuttings and exports.The forcedexport of coal has also led to increased use by the Germans of woodas fuel for house heating.The soil erosion which is resulting from the uneconomic ex-ploitation of Germany s forests by her conquerors will seriouslyreduce the quantity of arable land.It is also likely to have a perma-nently harmful effect on the climate of Europe.The Swiss are already concerned at the climatic effects of theFrench and British deforestation of Germany.The German climate [a Swiss forestry expert wrote] is assumingsteppe features.This danger ought to be taken seriously, not only inGermany itself but in all Europe.It is certain that as a consequenceclimatic changes will take place in Switzerland.Reforestation isnot taken care of after the cuttings have been made, because of thelack of personnel, seeds and plants.** Cited by Hans Huth in Report on the Present Situation of Nature Pro-tection in the American, British and French Occupied Zones of Germany(Chicago, June 1948).280 THE HIGH COST OF VENGEANCEAn article in the forestry journal of the Food and AgricultureOrganization of the United Nations (Unasylva, July-August 1947)stated: Many countries view an excessive depletion of Germany swood resources with grave anxiety as upsetting the whole economicstructure and balance of Europe and as mortgaging the future witha problem it will take at least a hundred years to adjust.As Edmund Burke said at the time of the French Revolution, youcannot indict a whole nation.It would be as unfair to account thewhole French people responsible for the vindictive stupidity ofpresent-day French policy as it is to regard all Germans as havingbeen supporters of the Nazi regime.It is the French politicians ofall parties who play upon national passions and hatreds for theirown advantage who are responsible for the vendetta against theGermans which is weakening all Europe, and may succeed in de-livering it to Stalin.For the strange thing today is that the Frenchpeople, as distinct from their government, seem more friendly tothe Germans than in the past.This is the impression gained bysuch Germans as Dr.Ernst Reuter and Annadore Leber who havevisited France recently; it was also my own.During the two weeks I spent in Paris in the summer of 1948I made a point of asking every Frenchman I met how it had beenunder the German occupation.And the answer I received was al-most always the same, whether I spoke to the waiters in restaurants,to workers or small shop keepers, to servants or porters: A shrug ofthe shoulders and the remark, Well, we ate a little better thenthan now. And the last man I spoke to, who was the porter whocarried my bag to the train on which I was returning to Germany,said, If only we French could get together with the German peo-ple, everything would be better; that would be something.Wemight then enjoy peace and a decent living.It seemed in France that it was the rich, not the poor, who hatedthe Germans, for the latter during the occupation had at least en-sured an equitable distribution of the food and goods available,whereas in Liberated France the rich got richer and the poor poorerevery day.On my way from England to Germany via Ostende at the be-ginning of August 1948 I had a conversation which throws somelight on the discrepancy between the attitude of the French andBelgian governments and press and the sentiments of many FrenchTHE FRENCH RIDE HIGH 281and Belgian citizens of the middle and lower classes.I was travelingsecond-class as I usually do, not only for reasons of economy, butbecause people are more inclined to speak freely to strangers onlong train journeys than in any other circumstances.If you travelin comfort in an international sleeping car the chances are that youwill speak little or not at all to your fellow passengers, and thatmost of them will be foreigners like yourself.But in the second-and third-class carriages where you sit up all night the hours passmore quickly if you talk.So I have often had intimate conversationswith strangers whom I would never meet again and who for thatreason feel secure in revealing their true sentiments.On this occasion four people including myself occupied the car-riage.Opposite me there was an Englishman with whom I soongot involved in a friendly argument about Germany.At one pointin our discussion he turned to the lady sitting at his side and, aftergiving her a summary of our discussion in French, said: Madamewill certainly agree with me since her people suffered under theGerman occupation. The lady, who was remarkably pretty, re-plied: No, Monsieur, I agree entirely with Madame.I am verysorry for the German people today, and besides I see no sense inthe present policy of keeping them in such miserable conditionsthat they may be driven to side with Russia against us.The man next to me, who turned out to be a Belgian business-man on his way to Prague, broke in and said: We simply cannotunderstand the American policy of destroying Germany so thatthere is no barrier between us and Soviet Russia.It is we who willsuffer the results of Anglo-American stupidity when the Russianssweep across Europe
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