EAST-WEST CONTACT IN BERLIN IS NOW A PROBLEM

Grey River Argus, 25 March 1948, Page 5

EAST-WEST CONTACT IN BERLIN IS NOW A PROBLEM

Will Four-Power Control End ?

LONDON, March 23. A Berlin correspondent of the Associated Press stated:— Britain has now joined the United States in demanding that the Russians set a date for the next meeting of the Allied Control Council before taking up the work of the lesser fourPower committees. The Military Governor of tne British zone, General Sir Brien Rooertson, announced that the British representatives could not attend a meeting of the four-Power committees and directorates until the Allied Control Council met to consider tne position created by the council meeting on March 20, when the Russians walked out of a council meeting. The American Military Governor, General Lucius Clay, issued a similar statement.

The Russians earlier called on the four Allied sub-committees to meet this week. A high American official said: “We are tired of being pushed around.” , The French Deputy Military Governor in Germany, General Noiret, announced that France would join with Britain and the United States in boycotting the four-Power committee meetings. “The Times” correspondent at Berlin states: “There is still no clear indication whether the Russians, after their withdrawal on Saturday from the Allied Control Council, regard four-Power Government of Germany as at an end. In British and American circles the gravity of the Russian step is admitted. It is also admitted that if the Russians have decided to disregard the juridicial foundation of the four-Power occupation of Berlin, the Western Powers might be placed in a difficult position. “As is their custom, the Russians are keeping their own counsel, out Germans in touch with Soviet headquarters were suggesting last night that if the Russians had intended a complete denunciation of the quadripartite co-operation their decision would have been announced, not m Berlin by the Russian military administration, but in Moscow in iormal Notes to the Western Powers. But no matter what the final meaning of Marshal Sokolovskys withdrawal from the Control Council may prove to be, the British and American authorities have no intention of leaving Berlin. A Western withdrawal would be a blow both to Allied prestige and German morale, for now more than ever Berlin has become for Germans in all parts of Germany, a symbol of their national unity. “It is recalled that the Russians can create many difficulties, for instance the Russian sector of Berlin might be incorporated in the Russian zone, and a constant political agitation could be used to influence tne "onulation of the Western sectors. These and other difficulties may not arise but if they do they will be faced.”

U.S. Forces Staying in Germany WASHINGTON, March 23. White House announced to-day that the United States Army will continue the work of government in the American zone of Germany indefinitely. Plans had been made for the State Department to taxe over the Government about June. Announcing the new decision, White House said it had been decided that it would be “inadvisable to make changes in the United States administrative arrangements ror Germany.”