ECONOMIC UNION

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 66, Issue 255, 9 August 1946, Page 3

ECONOMIC UNION

OCCUPATION ZONES IN GERMANY BRITAIN ACCEPTS RUSSIAN PROPOSAL (N.Z. Press Association —Copyright.) (Rec. 11.40 a.m.) LONDON, Aug. 8. Britain has accepted a Russian proposal that a Four-Power Commission should investigate the effect economic union in the occupation zones of Germany would have on German trade, transportation, travel and similar problems. The Foreign Office, in a statement on inter-zone co-operation in Germany circulated to Russia, America and France, says: “Britain has never accepted Russia’s claim for 10,000,000,000 dollars' reparations from Germany. Unless and until Germany as a whole has an export surplus, Russia, by the unambiguous terms of the Potsdam Agreement, is not entitled to take as reparations goods currently produced, or stocks. This agreement cannot unilaterally be repudiated by one of its signatories. “Russian suggestions that certain products could be sent to the western zone in exchange for industrial equipment sent to Russia is described as irrelevant.” The statement declares that Britain would he glad to learn at the earliesttime whether Russia agrees on the principles' which must govern the treatment of Germany as an economic whole and the taking of reparations, and, if so, whether Russia was ready to establish immediately the necessary machinery in Germany to. put the principles into practice.