“How does the Prime Minister explain that West Germany, although she lost the war, is lending us money and is in a better financial situation than we are? Is it because Germany is spending less of her national income on armaments?” (Mr. Emrys Hughes of S. Ayrshire, Scotland, UK House of Commons, 1968)

Maybe the Military – Nuclear Industrial Complex didn’t bring the prosperity which we have been led to believe? Did Germany and Japan fare better with consumer goods? Reconstruction is cited, but the UK also had cities bombed during World War II.



“HMS Valiant, the first British nuclear submarine to be powered by a British built reactor”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PWR1

“5 November 1968 → Commons Sitting → ORAL ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS

GERMAN CHANCELLOR (COMMUNICATION)

HC Deb 05 November 1968 vol 772 cc694-5 694

§Q5. Mr. Marten asked the Prime Minister what communication he sent to the German Chancellor in September about Anglo-German collaboration; what reply he has received; and if he will make a statement.

§The Prime Minister My letter was confidential, but I can tell the House that it dealt generally with the need and the opportunities for closer European cooperation and the part that our two countries could play in this. A reply has not yet been received.

§Mr. Marten Can the Prime Minister hazard a guess as to why a reply has not yet been received, and will he take the House a little more into his confidence on this important matter? Does he, for example, equate it in any way with the Debré proposals made yesterday at Brussels?

§The Prime Minister I think that the reason why no reply has been received is that things have moved on a good deal since the letter was sent. There is continuing contact between my right hon. Friend and the German Foreign Minister. These matters will be further discussed 695 when I visit Germany in the New Year. There was no relation between this correspondence and the most recent proposals of M. Debré.

§Mr. Emrys Hughes How does the Prime Minister explain that West Germany, although she lost the war, is lending us money and is in a better financial situation than we are? Is it because Germany is spending less of her national income on armaments?

§The Prime Minister It is a fact that Germany has been spending a lower proportion of her national income on armaments than has this country, although with the defence proposals which have been endorsed by the House, our percentage will fall to an equivalent of that of similar countries in Western Europe. Other big factors have been not only that Germany has had a continual inflow of refugees from East Germany but also that after the war, because of the damage, the West Germans carried through an enormous programme of reinvestment, rebuilding and modernisation. Some 20 years later we are only beginning to catch up with the investment in and the modernisation of British industry.” © UK Parliament http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1968/nov/05/german-chancellor-communication

“Mr Emrys Hughes

1894 – October 18, 1969

Constituencies

South Ayrshire February 7, 1946 – October 18, 1969

Contributions

First recorded, on February 20, 1946 FOREIGN AFFAIRS Commons

Last recorded, on May 14, 1969 Police (Recruitment) Written Answers © UK Parliament http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/people/mr-emrys-hughes/

The German Chancellor in 1968 was a former Nazi: “One of his low points as Chancellor was in 1968 when Nazi-hunter Beate Klarsfeld, who campaigned with her husband Serge Klarsfeld against Nazi criminals, publicly slapped him in the face during the 1968 Christian Democrat convention, while calling him a Nazi. She did so in French and – whilst being dragged out of the room by two ushers – repeated her words in German saying “Kiesinger! Nazi! Abtreten!” (“Kiesinger! Nazi! Step down!”) Kiesinger, holding his left cheek, did not respond. Up to his death he refused to comment on the incident and in other opportunities he denied explicitly that he had been opportunistic by joining the NSDAP in 1933 (although he conceded joining the German Foreign Ministry to dodge his 1940 draft by the Wehrmacht). During his period as Chancellor, he made Carl Schmitt his regular intellectual companion (also a 1933 NSDAP late-joiner). Other prominent critics included the writers Heinrich Böll and Günter Grass (in 1966, Grass had written an open letter urging Kiesinger not to accept the chancellorship).” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Georg_Kiesinger

It is interesting that fascists remained in power in both Japan and Germany. Current Japanese Prime Minister Abe’s grandfather Nobusuke Kishi is a prime example. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobusuke_Kishi A German academic remarked with alarm 25 years ago that old Nazis had remained in German universities and were teaching that Hitler was a great statesman, and comparable to Napoleon.

So what was World War II really about? It is said that after the War communism was considered a bigger threat than fascism, but Russia was communist from 1917. A member of the Manhattan project alleged that Leslie Groves said that the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were meant as a warning to the Soviet Union. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Rotblat

“The first British naval reactor, the PWR1, utilising a core and reactor assembly of purely British design[1] went critical in 1965. Technology transfers under the 1958 US-UK Mutual Defence Agreement eventually made Rolls-Royce entirely self-sufficient in reactor design in exchange for a “considerable amount” of information regarding submarine design and quietening techniques being passed on to the USA.[2]/ Rolls Royce and Associates at Derby became the centre for design and manufacture of the reactors. The Ministry of Defence’s Vulcan Naval Reactor Test Establishment, at Dounreay, tested each reactor prior to its installation in nuclear submarines“. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PWR1

“Photo Description

ID: DNSC9401951 A port bow view of the British nuclear-powered attack submarine HMS Valiant (SSN-102) tied up at the navy pier. Location: PORT CANAVERAL, FLORIDA (FL) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (USA) Date 16 April 1994 Source http://www.dodmedia. osd.mil cropped from http://www.dodmedia. osd.mil/Assets/1994/Navy/DN-SC-94-01951.JPEG Author OS2 John Bouvia” via wikimedia: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HMS_Valiant_S102_01.jpg