WEST GERMAN GOVERNMENT PLANNED

Grey River Argus, 10 April 1948, Page 5

WEST GERMAN GOVERNMENT PLANNED

United States Takes The Initiative LONDON, April 8. The United States has proposed a five-point programme for the setting up of a West German Government, within just over a year, says Reuter’s diplomatic correspondent. The plan, it is believed, proposes five stages (1) The formation of a Provisional Government embracing the present Anglo-American bi-zone and the French zone. (2) The reorganisation of the German provincial government’s borders. (3) The election of a constituent assembly. (4) The drafting of a constitution. (5) The formal establishment of a new West German Government. Russians are eagerly waiting for the Allies to make the first move toward officially consecrating the partition of Germany to launch a “People’s Government” in Berlin. The political director of the French Foreign Office, M. Maurice Couve de Murville, will attend a luncheon tomorrow with the British and American Commanders-in-Chief. Reuter’s correspondent says it is believed M. de Murville’s hurried visit amounts to an attempt to place the three-Fower talks on the administration of Western Germany on a higher level. French officials said the constitution of a Western Germany Government at Frankfurt would be just the excuse the Russians were looking for to set up a Soviet-controlled German Government in Berlin. FRENCH FAVOUR GERMAN FEDERATION French officials feel that General Clay’s theory is that whoever acts first will subsequently have the advantage of German support. French diplomats do not take this calculation seriously. They insist that the onlyeffective counter-action to the establishment of a Soviet-sponsored German Goveqrnment -would be a Federal Western German Government, in which the relative political autonomy of each State would be able effectively to neutralise the sentimental and political attraction of any government having its centre in Berlin. It. is believed that the Americans think it is urgent, in view of the recent Berlin crisis, to consolidate Western Germany, politically and economically, as part of the wider design for the recovery of non-Communist Europe. The Americans also feel that unless steps are taken to give the Western zones a Provisional Government they will be faced with an East German State and Government for which Soviet plans are believed to be already far advanced. A reliable London source says that olficials representing the United States. Britain. France, Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg are likely to discuss the United States nroposals at a meeting shortly in Berlin. The Western Powers’ delegates to the four-Power Kommandatura have agreed to abolish six of the eight committees which the Russians demanded should be wiped out at last week’s Kommandatura meeting. The work of these committees will be absorbed by the committees still functioning. Soviet a Step Ahead ? FRENCH FEAR A TRAP LONDON, April 8. French official circles were unfavourably impressed by the speech made by the British Military Governor in Germany, General Sir Brian Robertson. High-ranking officials fear that the Western Allies are in danger of walking into a Russian trap. Russians Making Arrests BERLIN, April 8. Berlin’s Socialistic press reported the Prussian occupation authorities as conducting a new wave of arrests against anti-Communists. The Russians are taking extraordinary measures to calm the population, which has been made nervous by inter-Allied differences. CZECH PILOTS LAND IN BAVARIA The American authorities in Munich report that a transport aeroplane, with 27 Czech pilots on board, landed in Bavaria on Tuesday night. The pilots said that they had served in the Royal Air Force during the war, and were fleeing from Czechoslovakia.