Western Berliners Buy Food In Soviet Zone

Chronicle (Levin), 7 May 1949, Page 5

Western Berliners Buy Food In Soviet Zone

(N.Z.P.A.-

-Reuter,

CQpyright)

Received Friday, 7 p.m, J LONDON, May 6. 1 Reuter 's diplomatic correspondent says the decision to raise the Berlin blockade and resume four-Power negotiations between Russia and the "Western Powers is welcomed in London as a step towards the solution of the German problem, bnt not as a solution in itself. • ' Officials and observers of the three Western Powers in London sounded a note caution based not on any laek of goodwill or desire to find an agreed solution for the whole of Germany^ but on a realistic appi'eciation of the situation existing today. This undeiTying situation whieli the Council of Foreign Ministers will have to i'ace in Paris is that Germanv is geographically part botli of the eastern European system which has been developed since the war under ^Ioscow's leadership and of a western Europe steadily crystallising into a eoordinated political and economic unit.

Observers iu London consequently predict that the eoming meeting in Paris will either develop into a sincere effort by both sides to reach a limited practical agreement for an interim settlement in Germanv or will degenerate into an effort to win public opinion throughout Germanv for a political solution on eastern or western lines. The three Western Powers will, it is j elear from Mr. Bevin's statement iu the Commons yesterday, approach the Paris Conference in a firmer sense. Meanwhile, between now and May 23 — the date of the opening of thei Paris meeting — American, British and| French experts will join forees to prepare in detail for all foreseeable eventualities that may arise in Paris. As an official of the Western Powers put it, "the lifting of the blockade marks the beginning, not the end of the real problems involved in finding an overali solution for Germanv." If Russia Tries Any Trioks. A separate peace treaty should be signed with West Germanv if Russia again tried to preveut an agreement on German problems, said the former Uuited States Secretary' of -State (Mr. James F. Byniesl. He said the United States should tell the Russians that if they hedge during the Paris meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers it will be the last meeting. "We should proreed imniediately to call a peace conference. We should invite the nations that iiarticipated in the war against Germany to attend. We should draft a

peace treaty with the Government oi West Germany. Russia should be invited to the peace conference. Whether they attend or not they should be urged to ratify the treaty. If they agree it will be fortunate. " Such a settlement, Mr. Byrnes said, would not mean the immediate withdrawal of American troops from Germany. "If Russia refuses to ratify the peace treaty and retains a iarge military force in East Germany the Western Powers will have to keep an armed force in Germany suffieient for the enforcement of the treaty and the proteetion of the new West German Republic. We cannot disarm them and desert them." Mr. Byrnes warned that a cautious eve must be kept on Russia's reasons for lifting the Berlin blockade. "There is a real danger that in rejoieing over the lifting of the blockade we may be misled into expecting too mueh from the meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers. We may be misled into making too many concessions. " General Eobertson, in a prepared statement on the policy in Germany which received the authoritj'-. of Mr. Ernest Bevin, stated that the agreement to set up a Western Federai Republic in Germany would "proceed rapidly. ' ' General Robertson left no doubt that the inclusion of the eastern zone in a united German admijiistration, although desiruble, could occur only oji the basis of the fundamentals laid down in the Bonn Constitution.