The Armed Forces Commanders exercise the rights of military sovereignty and the territorial power of command in their areas of jurisdiction. Their demands will be carried out in the civilian sphere by the Reich Commissars and their subordinate agencies. The military agencies are neither superior nor subordinate to the agencies of the civilian administration. The Armed Forces Commanders can provide even civilian agencies with directives in urgent cases, however, in accordance with the Fuehrer's decree of 5 June 1941. All agencies of the civilian administration are obligated to inform the military agencies of all affairs which might affect the sphere of their assignments.
Considerable value is to be laid upon a frictionless collaboration. The Commissars are to have themselves thoroughly informed by the Armed Forces Commanders, respectively by the agencies subordinated to them about their observations, experiences, and the measures already taken after taking over the administration. The laws decreed by them and the administrative orders given by them remain in effect insofar as the decrees and ordinances are not abrogated.
The Fuehrer has entrusted Reich Marshal Hermann Goering, as Commissioner for the Four-year Plan, with the supervision of the tasks of the war economy in the Occupied Eastern Territories. The economic inspectorates and economic commands are active there as his representatives (see green folio). These economic inspectorates and economic commands will be substantially absorbed in the agencies of the civil administration after the establishment of the civil administration.
If basic differences of opinion should arise between the agencies of the civil administration and the military agencies or, insofar as they still exist, the economic inspectorates and economic commands, and these cannot be settled in direct conversations, then it is to be reported to the superior civil authority immediately so that the latter can, in cooperation with the superior military agency, bring about an amicable unification.
C. Business Communications.
After taking over the businesses, the current state of affairs is to be reported briefly to the next superior agency, in particular the taking over of the administration from the hands of the agencies of the military administration as well about the state of the population and the capacity for work of any existing native authorities. It is further to be reported which office buildings have been occupied and which lines of communication are available. The Reich and General Commissars will determine the periods at which the subordinate agencies are to report regularly about the general situation without prejudice to the duty to provide individual reports and special delivery reports (at first, at short intervals which can be later lengthened). At first the Reich Commissars will give the Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories a comprehensive report on the situation in brief form twice a month, on the first and fifteenth of each month. The Reich Minister is to be given a report by the Reich Commissar immediately about incidents of an especially important nature. The General Commissars and Regional Commissars must report directly to the Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories by the quickest means particularly important incidents, as, for example, widespread unrest, more important acts of sabotage and strikes, great natural catastrophes and the like, and at the same time report them to the next superior agency.
The Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories will publish an official gazette under the title
"Official Gazette of the Reich Minister for the
Occupied Eastern Territories" (VBldRM Ost),
in which all the decrees of the Reich Minister will be published. At first the official gazette will only appear when necessary. In addition there will appear the "Reich Ministerial Gazette of the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories (RMBl. dRM Ost)," in which all executive decrees and other administrative directives of general validity will be published.
The Reich Commissars will publish the decree of the Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories, as well as their own decrees and decrees of general interest, in two or more languages according to need in official gazette (Gazette of the Reich Commissar for......).
The General Commissars will publish official papers, likewise in two or more languages, in which they will publish their ordinances and orders of general interest as also the police orders of the Regional Commissars without prejudice to other means of publishing in individual instances.
The title of these official papers will read: