One year ago this week, the Western Allies accepted the draft for a German constitution proffered by the Bonn Convention. Since its establishment, the government has been a success in some respects as far as the Allies are concerned. It has remained free of Communist influence. It has also resisted daily offers from the Russian-controlled East State to confederate. Economically, according to the Economic Cooperation Administration, its industrial recovery has been "rapid and dramatic." This is a pleasing report for Western Powers who, according to John J. McCloy, U.S. High Commissioner for Germany, consider control of Germany the primary goal of Russian attack--propagandawise now, possibly militarily later.

The occupying powers are worried all the same. For, while keeping West Germany strong enough to resist Communism, they have not successfully combatted rising nationalism, nor solved the economic problems resulting from the arbitrary division of the country. And, in some cases, they have been reduced to persuading the Bonn government to their way of thinking. The very strength of the West German State has become a matter for Allied worry.

Growing Nationalism

According to a special commission report to McCloy, extreme nationalist groups may control as many as six million votes. The Democratic party, which is in the government coalition, contains many strong patriotic elements.

These nationalists got more ammunition when France made a treaty with the Saar last month. That small territory, under French protectorate until a German peace treaty, leased its coal mines to France for 50 years in return for economic and political advantages. Western Germans claimed that the mines were German property--they belonged to the Third Reich--and that France had no right to make the treaty until a general European peace settlement. Both Kurt Schumacher, leader of the opposition Socialist Party and Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, head of the Christian Democrats, complained. The Chancellor said, "German faith in the Allies has been severely damaged," be threatened to keep the State out of the Council of Europe.

Western leaders had been stressing the political importance of keeping Germany in our sphere of influence and the nation's economic importance to European recovery. But Ernest Bevin stated that there would not be "a lot of courting of Germany to get them in" the Council. Adenauer, however, announced three conditions the Allies must accept before West Germany would consider entering. They were: 1) that a formal invitation to join be sent to the Bonn Parliament; 2) that the Saar issue be reviewed in the final peace treaty; 3) that West Germany have an observer on the Council's Committee of ministers as well as delegates to the Council meetings. The Allies accepted the first two points, rejecting the third.

Necessity of Unity

Both the German nationalists and the present government have agreed on the necessity of unifying all Germany under one government. The Western Allies, however, in finally standing for a unified Germany "under democratic principle," had other reasons than giving in to German patriotism. The line dividing East and West is not economically logical. The Western sector cannot get Eastern raw materials and the Eastern sector cannot buy Western manufactures. And, with the division, the West zone lost its principle food source in the East. Partly due to the division, West Germany now has an employment problem: its population has gone up 20 percent, mainly in refugees from the East zone. Lack of urban housing keeps most of the refugees in rural areas where there are few jobs.

These problems have so far proved insoluble. The West also feared loss of anti-Communist forces in East Germany. These groups, which polled almost a third of the vote in the last Eastern election, have grown alarmingly weaker since. They wanted a definite statement of Allied support of German unity. Otherwise the Communists could rightfully claim-Russia alone wants a whole Germany. After the East State announced its elections for next October 15, McCloy asked the West government to draw up an election statue for an all-German election on that date. The East last month refused Western conditions for the joint enterprise, but the Allied stand on unity is now in writing.

France fears a strong German state, and the British are worried about competing against its manufacturers. But some Western military authorities, and many Germans want an even stronger state. The West German State will be a Western worry for some time to come.