Dear Mr. Pearson,

In preparation for the impending descent of Mr. Ollenhauer, the German SPD leader, on Ottawa, I thought the following observations might not be out of place as Herr Ollenhauer's visit to the States and to Canada may be of some considerable importance for the future evolution of Socialist policy in Germany which in turn might have a quite decisive effect on the prospects of the North Atlantic alliance.

So far as Herr Ollenhauer's visit to Washington is concerned, there are perhaps two ways of looking at it. One is the short-term electoral aspect. This has its comic side. It is common gossip in Bonn that no sooner had Ollenhauer decided to go to the States when the Government sent von Echardt, head of the Federal Press Office and at present the Chancellor's closest personal adviser, scurrying over to Washington ostensibly to make arrangements for President Heuss' visit to the United States (and no doubt the Chancellor's own later visit) but also to counteract the effects of Ollenhauer's visit. Moreover, hardly had Ollenhauer set foot on American soil when he encountered one of his principal CDU rivals in the Bundestag, Herr Kiesinger, whose visit to the United States had been timed to coincide with Ollenhauer's and no doubt to offset it. This sort of thing is all rather undignified. The general impression caused by this migration of German politicians to the United States before the elections in order to gain reflected credit from their close association with Washington is a remarkably candid demonstration of the German desire to get on the band wagon. Angry comments and counter-comments in the German party press about Ollenhauer's statements in the United States make a rather strident echo.

Looking at Ollenhauer's visit from a more long term point of view and in relation to the North Atlantic Treaty, I think it may serve a good purpose. Anyone in Washington who meets and talks to Ollenhauer will speedily be convinced that he is not a neutralist or crypto-Communist which some people in the States have considered him to be. This in turn will be a good thing because wholesale mistrust of the German Socialists in Washington would be a poor prospect for the future in which the Socialists may form part of the German Government or even control it. When I saw von Welck in the Foreign Office on Thursday, of last week, I expressed to him this view of Ollenhauer's visit to North America and he agreed with me. At the same time he added that Ollenhauer, in the course of convincing people in Washington and Ottawa of his sincere pro-Western views, might find himself more deeply involved in assurances regarding the basically Western orientation of Socialist policy. This in itself he felt would be desirable. I asked von Welck whether out of all the hazy and shifting statements which Ollenhauer has made about the policy which a German Socialist Government would pursue towards Germany's membership in NATO he could sort out any coherent picture of Socialist future over this question. He said that he understood Ollenhauer as having said that he would only consider Germany's departure from NATO in the general framework of agreement with Germany's Western allies. In other words, he has bound himself to consult the NATO allies, but not to accept a NATO veto on Germany's departure from the alliance. Von Welck went on to say that as he understood the Socialist position, they would not in any event leave NATO until Soviet troops had been withdrawn from Eastern Germany and American troops from the Federal Republic; until substantial progress had been made over disarmament and until a satisfactory European security system guaranteed by the Soviet Union and the United States was set up. Von Welck said that these conditions were hardly likely to be fulfilled in the foreseeable future so that the risk of German departure from NATO looked fairly remote.

Ollenhauer for his part spoke to me the other day specifically of prior consultation with Germany's allies, including Canada, before Germany left NATO. At the same time my efforts to interest him in the non-military aspects of NATO and the possibility of the alliance evolving along these lines, particularly if the military pressure becomes less, met with a pretty tepid response. Ollenhauer said that the NATO label symbolized for many people a military alliance. He emphasized the undesirability of this from the point of view of relations between the Western nations and those of Asia and the Middle East and said that in the long term the essential question of the future was this relationship. I told him that nowhere more than in Ottawa would he find a lively awareness of this whole problem and tried to set before him the policy which the Canadian Government has followed in relation to Asian and Middle East questions. I think you will find him very interested in this relationship.

In general, apart from narrow German domestic politics, I believe you may be struck by the similarity in Ollenhauer's thinking to that of, for example, Mr. Coldwell. Ollenhauer is a middle-of-the-road Socialist, not at all unlike his Anglo-Saxon opposite numbers. Personally he is an agreeable if not particularly impressive man of quick footwork in debate in the Bundestag, some humour, no fanaticism.

I fear, however, that Ollenhauer's very niceness and middle-of-the-road moderation make him very unlikely ever to obtain a real hold over the German people. I should fear that if he came to power his inexperience of wielding power and his relatively light-weight quality would lead to a certain unreliability in the conduct of German affairs rather than to any active disloyalty to the Western connection. I doubt if he has or ever would have the authority to be an effective Chancellor in a country where authority is still taken with deadly seriousness.

There is one other rather baffling side of Ollenhauer, and indeed of most German Socialists, and that is their incredible capacity for double talk. Really the German Socialists have an unholy capacity for talking on the highest level and acting out of purest opportunism. With the old Chancellor and his Ministers one often comes across a pretty unattractive bedrock Germanism but with the Socialists you do have a feeling of quick-sands under you.

Ollenhauer will be accompanied by Heine, his adviser from the SPD party headquarters (and a member of the party's Executive Committee), a clever and likeable little fellow who is very quick on the uptake. Mide Handler, the New York Times correspondent who is rather pro-Socialist in outlook was lamenting to me that they had not taken with them a few of the more picturesque, local Socialist politicians with a touch of proletarian bluntness about them and a fondness for drinking with the boys. He thought these would have made a better team to meet the press and Congressmen in Washington.

In any event, I really believe that Ollenhauer's visit to Ottawa has got positive value and that this opportunity to talk to you is very worthwhile as I think he is susceptible to influence and will find that the point of view he meets with in Ottawa is a good deal more understanding than that in Washington. Yours ever,

C.S.A. RITCHIE