The Labor Party conference approved today a resolution condemning the decision to permit West German troops to train in Britain as “a betrayal of all those who fought and died during the last war.”
The resolution was presented by the National Union of Tailors and Garment Workers and was seconded by Dr. S.A. Miller, a delegate of the Labor Zionists of Great Britain. It was adopted by delegates representing a majority of 750,000 votes. Opposing the resolution was the Labor Party leader Hugh Gaitskell.
Dr. Miller said he was aware that West Germany was different from Hitler’s Reich but, he added, the new West German recruits were being officered and trained by men who served in Hitler’s army “which had set out to enslave the world” and had created death factories for the slaughter of millions.
He said Britain was the only country in Europe from whose shores the Nazi hordes had been kept at a tremendous cost in “blood, tears, toil and sweat.” To bring West German soldiers militarily equipped under the command of men with “a notorious past” was a “desecration,” Dr. Miller asserted.
Mr. Gaitskell said he fully appreciated the sentiments “so ably expressed” by Dr. Miller but that he felt the conference should reject the resolution. He argued that all members of NATO must be treated on an equal basis.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
