U.S. CONDITION FOR FOUR POWER TALKS IS END OF BLOCKADE

Grey River Argus, 7 October 1948, Page 5

U.S. CONDITION FOR FOUR POWER TALKS IS END OF BLOCKADE

(Rec. 11.0). PARIS, October 6. Dr Philip Jessup (U.S.A.) told the U.N. Security Council, when it resumed to discuss Berlin, that the United States was ready to have an immediate meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers to discuss Germany, the moment that the Soviet blockade of Berlin was lifted.

In a long speech, outlining the United States case, Dr Jessup said that the problem was not brought to the Security Council with any out and dried formula for its solution. “It is our hope that the Security Council can assist 'in removing the threat to peace”, he said. “Nothing which has happened has changed our position on that point”. (Rec. 11.35). PARIS, Oct. 6. Dr. Jessup said in the U.N.O. Council that the acts of the Soviet Government in illegally' obstructing, by the threat of force, the the three Western Powers in Berlin, created a threat to peace. The fact that the matter came before the Council under Chapter Seven of the Charter did not mean that the Council was precluded from using any of the machinery for a Pacific settlement suggested in any part of the Charter. The Security council had the greatest flexibility of action to carry out the primary responsibility conferred upon it for the maintenance of peace. Dr. Jessup said that Russia made an offer to feed the whole of Berlin. That affer was so hedged as to make it practically impossible for the inhabitants of the Western Sectors of Berlin to accept it, even if they desired, thus, to subordinate themselves to Soviet control He added that, in September, only fifty-six thousand Berliners from the Western Sectors, out of the population there of. nearly two and a half millions, had registered food cards in the Soviet sector. The German people recognised it for the political bribery it was. M. VYSHINSKY PRESENT

M. Vyshinsky was present when the Council resumed the debate. M. Vyshinsky, after taking notes during the first part of Dr. Jessup’s speech, threw down his pencil, and took out a newspaper, which he bet gan reading. M. Tarasenko made doodles.