Less Buttertat

Before the agreement between the Japanese and Americans was made public, the West German government mysteriously got hold of a copy, paid a translator to hurry it into German, and compared it, item by item, with the "contractual peace agreement" West Germany is working out with its occupiers. Conclusion: the Japanese got a slightly better deal.

But by last week, with West German negotiations devoting loving attention to details, it became clear that occupation's end in Germany too will squeeze some of the rich butterfat out of the occupiers' lives. The Rhine mansions, the special G.I. trains and bargain fares, the free servants are going. Eighty per cent of German properties requisitioned after the war have already been turned back. German courts, currently barred from trying cases involving allied soldiers and civilians, will be permitted to handle civil suits involving the foreign troops stationed in Germany. Among them: a sizable number of suits by German, mothers of Besatzungskinder, or illegitimate children sired by G.I.s.

Even so, there will still be some rather choice amenities for the conquerors. The U.S. Army intends to hang on to Bavaria's two best ski resorts -- Garmisch and Berchtesgaden--which it seized for furlough centers. Some of Germany's choicest hunting grounds, forbidden to the vanquished for the past six years, will still be reserved for American sportsmen hankering after a bit of pheasant, roebuck or rabbit.

State Department employees will still live behind the Hershey Bar Curtain in the expensive new apartment house fronting on the Rhine (TIME, Dec. 3). Though High Commissioner John J. McCloy is giving up his diesel train and his million-dollar mansion in Bad Homburg, he will keep his big house in Berlin. State has built new houses beside the Rhine for McCloy and five top assistants.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.