Twelve years age, Hitler grabbed the Ruhr. Without it, the German war machine would have been weak, and the incredibly successful conquests of 1939 to 1942 impossible. But with the most concentrated industrial region in the world working for him, Hitler conquered Europe. Once the Nazis were defeated, the Allied coalition determined to control the Ruhr, to make sure that Germany would never again have the productive means for war. Originally, the Allies planned to pull up the factories by the foundations and turn the Ruhr into a pasture-land. This drastic position was, however, economically dangerous, and slowly gave way to a more sensible proposition. As the center of Europe's industrial recovery program, the Ruhr was to be completely utilized--but with stiff and continuing controls.

These controls seemed nearly at an end this month. The American and British military governors announced that the Ruhr will be directed by German "trustees," until a German government is set up. Then that government will have the option of nationalizing the Ruhr--or letting it remain in the hands of the trustees.

The French have protested this decision violently. Charles de Gaulle has stated clearly that he would prefer to junk the Marshall Plan entirely, rather than have the Ruhr in German hands. French Communist claims that "pro-German cartelsympathizers" have put the deal across now look all too correct to non-Communists in both France and the world outside. The Queuille government has also expressed dismay, but in a necessarily feebler tone, since it is trying to work in harmony with the other Western nations. Battered by left and right, the French government has been gravely embarrassed, and its shaky grasp of power further weakened.

Our State Department has asserted that German control is the only way to hike Ruhr production--which has nonetheless been rising steadily all along. Supporters of the official position minimize French fears as historical nervousness that is now outdated. The unofficial aim is directly at Russia: anything that will jazz up Ruhr output is desirable, even if it alienates Frenchmen and all those who remember the terrible years when the foundations of German tyranny in Europe were the factories of the Ruhr.

The United States and Great Britain have offered the French a seat on the council which will nominally supervise the trustees during the period before the Germans elect a government. This "concession' is practically an insult. The French see international control of the Ruhr going out of the window. They know that when the future German government takes over the industries--or leaves them in the hands of cartels--Germany will become the most powerful nation on the Continent, outside of Russia.

In London, the United States, Great Britain, France, and the Benelux trio are now meeting for the purpose of creating an international authority to govern distribution of the Ruhr's coal, iron, and steel production. But the authority will be useless with the Ruhr owned and operated by the German government-to-be. Future allocations will depend entirely on the policy of that government.

The international authority should control both production and distribution. Germans can manage plants, but Germans should not decide what those plants produce. By preparing the way for German control of Europe's greatest industrial region, the governments of the United States and Britain have greatly damaged European unity, and the concept of a cooperative Atlantic community.