WESTERN ENVOYS PREPARING TO DEPART FROM MOSCOW WITHOUT REACHING AGREEMENT

Grey River Argus, 21 September 1948, Page 5

WESTERN ENVOYS PREPARING TO DEPART FROM MOSCOW WITHOUT REACHING AGREEMENT

(Rec. 10.10) • LONDON, Sept. 20. Indications are that the Moscow talks have finished without an agreement. ,Britain’s special envoy, Mr F. Roberts, is preparing to leave Moscow early this week, states an Associated Press correspondent at Moscow. It is expected that he will fly to Paris and probably will join Mr Bevin. An informed French source said M. Seydoux, political and diplomatic adviser to the French Military Governor in Germany, is leaving Moscow to-day for Berlin.

Reuter’s diplomatic writer said that tne Moscow negotiations on Berlin appear finally to have broken down. Although he would not confirm this, a Foreign (Juice spokesman said. “We are not prepared to lorecast What will happen next." It is expected that to-day (Monday) final discussions on the next move will be held in Faris to-morrow. Mr. Ernest Levin saw the American and French Ambassadors in London, with whom Sir William Strang, head of the Foreign Office German Department, also consulted. The correspondent says: “The clear inference is that M. Molotov had no satisfactory proposals to make to the Western envoys on Saturday, and is not prepared to send a new directive to Marshal Sokolovsky in Berlin. Mr. Beviq is expected to meet General Marshall and the French Foreign Minister, M. Schuman, in Paris to-day. Mr. Bevin, who left for Paris, will return for a House of Commons debate on Wednesday. This will deal with the Berlin situation and Moscow negotiations. ; At Berlin, the British Military Gov ernor, General Sir Brian Robertson, cancelled a scheduled visit to Hamburg. Instead he will fly to Paris. It is assumed that he will have talks with Mr. Bevin. The “Daily Telegraph s diplomatic correspondent says: The Western Powers in the next day. or two will have to decide whether there is any point in continuing the direct negotiations with Moscow over Berlin. This will form the basis of the discussions between Mr. Bevin, General Marshall and M. Schuman in Pans to-morrow. If they decide that further negotiations are useless, the Western envoys will probably see M. Molotov again and tell him that, failing an immediate agreement, the matter will be taken to the United Nations Assembly as a threat to international peace.

LONDON, Sept. 20.

BERLIN AIR-LIFT

PROVING COSTLY

(Rec 9.0) LONDON, Sept. 20. The Berlin air-lift, which now is in its eighty-fourth day, has already cost Britain about two and a-half millions sterling. It has cost America three and three-quarter millions sterling. The combined bill is now amounting to one hundred thousand sterling a day. Of this Britain pays 40 per cent., according to the Daily Express. British planes have logged six and a-quarter million miles to land seventy-five thousand tons at the Gaton airport. The cost was about thirty pounds sterling per ton.

British Plane Crashes on Airfield Killing Four

(Rec. 9.40) LONDON, Sept. 20. The crew of four was killed in a Royal Air Force York aircraft, which crashed, just after taking off from Wunstorf aerodrome, with supplies for Berlin, says Reuter’s Hanover correspondent. This is the first fatal accident to a British air-lift plane. The York, which was loaded with eight tons of food, burst into flames upon crashing, and it was completely burned out.