SOVIET MOVE

Grey River Argus, 13 April 1948, Page 5

SOVIET MOVE

VIENNA, April 11. On Sunday Soviet guards, armed with tommy-guns, stopped all British troops in cars at Semmering, a pass checking-point, and prevented them from using the 93-mile international highway across the Soviet zone from the British zone of Austria to Vienna. Official British sources paid the Russian restrictions had virtually brought to a standstill road traffic between the British zone and Vienna.

The British authorities are taking up the situation with the Soviet High Commissioner. General Vladimir Kurassov. Soviet guards permitted the British Deputy Commissioner, Major-General T. J. Winterton. to pass after holding him up for one hour.

Reuter’s correspondent says the British authorities consider the demand as another shrewd twist in the process of strangling Berlin’s epntacts with the Western world.

It was officially stated to-day that British posts .and tele-communication officials asked the Russians to reconsider the ban on maintenance squads in the Russian zone after April 15.

The occupation authorities in Austria. in the four-Power agreement of 1946, decided that a pass in four languages only was necessary for free access to any zone. The Russians are now insisting on passports or identity cards with photographs pf military personnel. The British authorities, as a concession, agreed to allow the Russian guards to examine the passports of civilian personnel, but would not permit this for military members of the Control Commission. The British authorities have ordered military personnel travelling between Vienna and the British zone of Austria by car or train not to show the Russian guards anything but the four-Power pass. A train from the British zone is due at the Soviet barrier at midnight. A train from Vienna is due there at 3 a.m. to-morrow.