WEST GERMANY LIKELY TO HAVE OWN GOVERNMENT BY END OF THE YEAR

Grey River Argus, 3 September 1948, Page 5

WEST GERMANY LIKELY TO HAVE OWN GOVERNMENT BY END OF THE YEAR

(Received September 2, at 10.10 p.m.) LONDON, September 2. A decisive step towards the shaping of Germany’s future structure was yesterday taken (Wednesday) . This was when political representatives of the eleven West German States met-as a Constituent Assembly at Bonn.

A special correspondent of ‘’The Times,” at Bonn says:—The West German Constitutional Assembly is charged with the task of drawing up a Constitution for a single West German State. It elected as its president, Doctor Konrad Adenauer, the Leader of the Christian Democrats in Western Germany, and it then adjourned for eight days, to enable the various Parties to arrange and to v work out points of procedure for future discussion. A,note of optimism was in evidence throughout the brief proceedings, and after the adjournment, individual members of the Assembly privately declared that a- Constitution might be drafted and approved in time for the election to take place in Western Germany in November, this meaning that a Government for Western Germany might well begin work at the end of this year or early next year. Sixty-five German experts from the Western zones met at Koenig’s Museum at Bonn to-day to draft a constitution for the Government of Germany on the lines of the Nnited States federal system. Thousands of people gathered. One hundred German police stood to attention ' outside the museum, which was decorated with the flags of the 11 States of the Western zone. The constitutional framework, which is subject to ratification by a people’s poll, is not likely to be completed for several weeks and is not expected to function until 1949. - Senior Government officials represented Generals Clay, Robertson and Koenig, who are occupied with the i'our-Power talk in Berlin. Mr. Christian Stock, President, of Hesse, opening the conference, specially welcomed the five Berlin representatives. He declared: ‘‘We from the Rhine admire the Berliners’ fight for freedom. The presence of the Berlin representatives proves that everybody who can decide for himself freely goes where, the people are gathering in freedom.” A scene occurred when a Communist delegate, Mr. Max Reimann, took charge of the rostrum before the assembly voted on a Communist motion to kill discussion of a separate West German Constitution. Mr. Reinmann shouted down the nrovisional president. Mr. Adolf Schoenfelder, for some minutes. The motion was lost, all the delegates opposing it, except two Communists. The British and French occuoation authorities are reducing and dismantling German factories in their zones. The British removed from the reparations list 34 factories in North Rh’ne-Westphalia and the French 15 in Rhineland-Pfalz. TEST OF SOVIET’S ATTITUDE Emphasising that everything now depends on the results of the Military Governors’ meeting in Berlin, the dip’omaVc correspondent of . “The Times” says these will show whether a practical agreement is possible. They are of supreme importance, becausa they deal with the problem wh’nh the Russians advanced a* thmr explicit reason fo 1 ’ blockading Berlin. As soon as the Western Powers reformed the currency in the Western

sectors, the Russians made their restrictions complete to safeguard, they said, the Eastern zone currency. The talks now beginning in Berlin will therefore be a test of the Soviet purposes. They will show whethei Moscow is ready to conclude a c^ cut agreement on Berlin currency and lift the blockade before turning to. discuss the wider problems of German unity. . .. . The “Financial Times” is sceptical, and recalls Lenin’s famous saying: “Give me the currency and I have the revolution.” It adds: “Of course, the lifting of the Berlin blockade by the Russians will be welcome, but they will always be in a position to re-impose it—and may decide to do so at a moment far less favourable to the Western Powers than the present.” , „ The “Daily Telegraph” says: Presumably, an understanding has been reached in Moscow that as soon as the currency question has been settled the blockade will, be lifted. Even so, if words have any meaning, the negotiations now taking place in Berlin are under duress—which the Western Powers have insisted they would in no circumstances countenance.”