DIVIDING LINE NOW AT BERLIN

Grey River Argus, 29 March 1948, Page 5

DIVIDING LINE NOW AT BERLIN

SOVIET CHARGES DENIED BY BRITAIN AND UNITED STATES (Received March 28, 8.15 p.m.) LONDON, March 28. The British Government, in a Note handed to the Soviet Ambassador at London, has repudiated the Soviet accusations that the Western Powers have been, or are violating the Potsdam Agreement, and that they are disrupting the Four Power Control Council machinery in Germany. The British Note states: “The Soviet Government is chiefly to blame for the Powers’ failure to agree upon running Germany as a unit. The United States to-day rejected the Russian protest that America, Britain and France had broken agreements for the Four Power control of Germany. The United States has, in turn, blamed the Soviet Union and its satellite nations for splitting Europe in two. The United States rejection of the Soviet protest was contained in a Note, which. has been sent by the United States Assistant-Secretary of State, Mr. Armour, to the Soviet Ambassador to the United States, M. Alexander Panyushkin. The Note stated: “Under the guise of reparations, Russia has taken into its possession, in gigantic trusts, the major industrial establishments in the Eastern Zone of Germany, accounting for twenty-five to thirty per cent, of the zone’s total remaining industrial productive capacity. Basic human rights are being denied to the zone’s populations, while concentration camps are being used, anew, for the individuals who arc unwilling to accept this new totalitarianism.”

British to Move From Berlin BERLIN, March 26 Fifteen per cent, of the British Control Commission will be shifted, as planned last November, from Berlin to decentralised headquarters in the British Zone during April and May, according to an official statement. Three hundred people, including officials, their wives and children, will be affected. A staff of 200 will remain in' Berlin. A commission sopkesman said, “the moves have nothing to do with Marshal Sokolovsky’s walk-out from the Allied Control Council on March 20.” Britain Urged To Seek Understanding With The Soviet (Received March 28, 5.5 p.m.) LONDON, March 28. Mr. Emanuel Shinwell (Secretary for War), in a speech said: “Britain must never cease to seek an understanding with Russia. If we fail, then, sooner or later, the world will be threatened with further conflict. If we could only realise the horror of future war, no measure would be too extreme to prevent it. The door is left open for Russia. I hope Russian leaders take full advantage of that offer.”