Russians Hold Up Trains In Berlin

Chronicle (Levin), 14 June 1948, Page 5

Russians Hold Up Trains In Berlin

(N.Z.P.A.-

-Reuter,

Copyright)

Received Sunday, 8.50 p.m. LONDpN, June 13. Tfie Russiaps withppt warning sfppped all Allied and German trains frotti' Western Germany to Berlin sliiee 7 p.m. on Friday night. The British railway transpprt Pfficer at 3Jelmgt*dt aniipuijped that rail tr,affic WPuid recoprmepce this eyening under ' a "tentative" arrangement. The Soviet authorities told' BrftiSh transport bffieials that trains^ bo'uhd" to Berlin from the.west . wp-te J fima.eeept-: able becatise of the coiigestion of traffic". The RuSsians okjected thar four wagons of a British fr eight traiir bound for Berlin carrying British " army stores were not labelled with a detailed list of their contents. The Russians are insisting that freight documents designate the specific destination instead of the general Allied praetiee' of addressing freight shipments to the Allied Kommandatura. An official announcement in Berliij stated that tlie British authorities would accept no measures increasing the difficultifes of legitimate travel in Germany. The announcement added that although the Russians held up 100 Germans yesterday they allowed some Germans to cross the border. The Russian authorities issuedc a protest" that the. British authorities stopped a Soviet train carrjdng exhibts for the Internatiozial Women 's FedertK tion exhibition in Paris and 'demanded that the train1 guards should cross the British zone in mufti and leave their arms behind. The British authorities deseribed the report as eompletely false. They saia the train concerned proeeeded nonstop across the British Zone without ineident.

The "cold war" in Berlin eontinues unabated. The British iieensed newsp.aper Die Welt reported that the telephones of a nuinber of Soviet offieials living in the British seetor had beezi disco'nnected by order of the British Military Goyernjnent. The telephones of a nupiber of westej'n offieials living in the Russian sector were recently disconnected by order of the Russian authoritiep. The Russiaps after rejecting the British demands to surrender the Berlin radio station announeed a new propaganda broadcast for Western German listeners, reports the Associated Pi'ess' Berlin correspondent. The programme lasts half an hour three times weekly and is designed, aeeording to the Soviet-controlled press, to giv>the Germans in the British and American zones "a true piejure of the developments in the Russiaif zohe. aa Ivbli as information about their owii. zones which they may not know". "kir * The Russians announeed in' Berlin' that the Elbe River bridge on the main road linldng Berlin with tlije Britisn Zone would be closed until late in July. Berries would take vehiclcs across the river. The bridge closing vvill delay British traffic eonsiderably.