It is a tragic irony of fate that decentralisation has been prescribed by the United Nations for vanquished Germany. At the Potsdam Conference the ‘Big Three’ decided that “local self-government shall be restored throughout Germany on democratic principles,” and that “emphasis shall be given to the development of agriculture and peaceful domestic industries.” Whatever others might think, I sincerely believe that such decentralised economic and political administration in Hitler’s Land would bring peace and lasting prosperity. It is significant that “peaceful domestic industries” should be introduced in a country which carried violence to its logical conclusion. The tragedy, however, is that decentralisation in Germany has not sprung from within; it has been forcibly imposed from without. Nevertheless, the Victors need not indulge in frenzied jubilations. Let me cry out to the Allies, “Physician, heal thyself !” If the United Nations also introduce within themselves the new Order that they have complacently prescribed for Germany, abiding world peace is assured because the very urge for aggression would wither away. Otherwise, the world shall once more rush headlong into unprecedented disaster.
