Allied Control Commission

After World War II, the Allied leaders faced one particular problem among many others How would it be possible to dispose of the mostly German CW stocks as quickly and safely as possible According to Article 3 of the Potsdam Agreement, Germany had to be demilitarised and all war material should be distributed to the Allies or destroyed. It was also decided that each occupation authority would be responsible for the munitions in its occupation zone. One of the favoured options was the disposal of these munitions by dumping at sea, as recommended by the Allied Control Commission s Standing Committee on War Material, in November 1945. ... 

This essay considers the work of the key agency - the Military Inter-Allied Control Commission (MICC) - and the German response to its efforts. Using newly released and rarely used archives, we explore why, whatever its intentions, postwar control largely failed, and in some respects proved counter-productive. The struggle on the Rhine became a war the victors lost. German interests out-manoeuvred Allied efforts, with consequences that would echo around the world for years to come. 

In June 1919, the Allied Council of Four discussed the establishment of military controls in detail. Their initial assumption was that these would be completed within three months of the Treaty coming into effect. To administer controls, the Allies called for three Inter-Allied Commissions (military, naval and air), to be presided over by a French general, a British admiral and a British general, respectively. In July 1919, the Military Inter-Allied Control Commission was set up, and the French General Nollet was appointed President. ... 

Third, the Allies suffered from a failure of principle, arising from the Treaty s intrinsic failure to resolve the dual-use dilemma , the riddle that, long before Lefebure, Brigadier Hartley had foreseen. The Military Inter-Allied Control Commission could and did order the German government to sell or demolish its state-owned military production facilities but its authority over private industry was almost ineffective. Despite abrogating contracts and dismantling plant, as... 

Where the Control Commission did succeed in technology transfer, it did so in the limited field of explosives and chemical warfare agents, to which the Germans adhered in a strict interpretation of Article 172. The German government seems to have concluded that it was better to give abundant information on questions that had little relevance to peacetime products, than to share information of commercial value. In the long run, this proved to be a profitable approach, as it offered relatively little benefit to Allied competitors. ... 

UNA, op. cit. note 55, Inter-Allied Military Control Commissions Germany. Col. 57, Articles 164 a 17214-15. 

The German Government must furnish to the Military Inter-Allied Commission of Control all such information and documents as the latter may deem necessary to ensure the complete execution of the military clauses, and in particular all legislative documents and regulations. 

Francis R. Bingham, Work with the Allied Commission of Control in Germany, 1919-1924 , Journal of the Royal United Services Institution, LXIX (1924), at 753. Major General Hon. Sir... 

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