Tomorrow's Breakfast

Spring was just around the corner. The U.S. Military Government felt the seasonal compulsion, and broke out with bright buds of optimism. First, Colonel Frank L. Howley, governor of Berlin's U.S. sector, heartily hailed the "unqualified success" of the joint occupation during its first six months, cheerily added the tactless and probably inaccurate boast that the U.S. now was the most influential power in Berlin. Hard on Howley's heels, General Joseph T. McNarney, commander of U.S. forces in Europe, reported that food stocks in the U.S. zone were surprisingly ample.

Just as General McNarney left for a vacation in Switzerland, news came from the British zone which froze all the optimism. "With great regret" and as a result of "unforeseen developments," the British slashed their zone's rations by about 33%.

Caloric Crisis. In Washington, the Combined Food Board--which allocates supplies for the U.S., Canada, and the United Kingdom--announced that it could not fill its wheat quota for Germany. During the early months of the occupation, the British had spent their substantial reserves. Now they had to cut the rations down to a near-starvation level of roughly 1,000 calories.

Despite McNarney's optimistic estimate, the U.S. could hardly help without cutting its own 1,550 calories. The French zone was at the bottom of its flour bin. The Russians pointedly hinted that everything was all right in their zone; actually, they might soon be facing serious shortage themselves. The food crisis spurred hopes of a zoneless four-power administration of Germany.

Fatigue of Defeat. Amid the worries over bread, political maneuvers continued. The Communists were still pressing for fusion with the Socialists despite a Socialist rank-&-file revolt. But the mass of Germans paid far more attention to the food crisis than to politics. True, some began to display a mixture of old arrogance and new bitterness which might one day become the mental pattern for many of their fellow Germans. But most of them were too wearied by the extraordinary efforts of living to spend any effort on political thought and action. Germans used up their energies lugging in logs from the woods, standing in queues for rations, digging among the rubble for a place to live. Some even scoured garbage dumps for food. Ever practical, the German Communist press captured readers with helpful household hints on how to stretch rations. Germany's chief national objective, at least for the time being, was tomorrow's breakfast.

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