Vyshinsky Says It Conflicts With Interests Of Germany

Chronicle (Levin), 31 May 1949, Page 5

Vyshinsky Says It Conflicts With Interests Of Germany

(N.Z.P.A.-

— Reuter,

Copyright)

^ Received Tuesday, 10.25 a.m, ?&■ PARIS, May 30. Russia today rejected the plan by the Western Powers for a united federal republic in Germany. Mr. Vyshinsky, in a Big Four Foreign Ministers' session lasting three and a-half hours, criticised the plan in detail and completely rejected the principles underlying it. He said that the proposals were "in confliet with the desires and interests of the German people, who wanted a peace treaty and an end of the occupation."

He further declared that they were in confiict with the Potsdam and Yalta Agreements. The Ministers today resumed their consideration of item one of their four-point agenda — German unity and Four-Power control. They began the discussion last Tuesday, when Mr. Vyshinsky called for a return to Four-Power control and the establishment of an all-German state council in Berlin possessing economic and political powers. Mr. Vyshinsky turned down out of hand any question of adherence of the Soviet zone to the Bonn constitution. He said it was based on a violation of democratic principles. The German people, he said, had had no part in its drafting, which had been the result of open pressure by the Western Powers. Mr. Vyshinsky said that the Bonn constitution aimed at the dismemberment of Germany. The Western proposals were nothing but an attempt to impose an order without the participation or consent of the German people or of the Soviet Union, which had a responsibility under the terms of the Potsdam Agreement. Mr. Vyshinsky declared that the real desires of the German people were represented by the constitu-

tion drafted by the People's Councii in Berlin. The so-called freedoms referred to by the Western Powers nad resulted m the persecution oi ihe democratic elemeffi s in the Western zones, and had given freedom only to the elements which had supported the Hitlerite regime. Hc denounce'd i.he Western proposa tor majority voting as contrary to the Potsdam Agreement.