SHOULD HAVE GIVEN WARNING

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXVI, Issue 14639, 7 April 1948, Page 3

SHOULD HAVE GIVEN WARNING

PRESENCE OF SOVIET FIGHTER Statement On Air Liner’s Crash Russian Authorities Not Officially To Blame London, April 6. Before the Chancellor of the Exchequer spoke in the House of Commons today, the Foreign Secretary, Mr Ernest Bevin, made a statement on yesterday’s collision over Berlin between a. British airliner and a Soviet fighter. The Foreign Secretary said the Russians should have given warning that there was a fighter in the air. No such warning was given. He confirmed that the British Commander, General Sir Brian Robertson, had had assurances from the Soviet Commander, Marshal Sokolovsky, that the Marshal condemned this act, and also that British aircraft using the corridor would not be molested.

A written reply was awaited, said Mr Bevin, and General Robertson’s action had the full approval of the British Government. Pending the result of 'the inquiry for which he was pressing, Mr Bevin- wanted to make it clear that he had no information to suggest that the conduct of the Soviet aircraft was the result of direct instructions from the Soviet authorities. The Foreign Secretary went on to deal with the general situation in Berlin. He said the British Government was prepared to discuss reorganising the Allied Kommandatura in the city, and would welcome an agreement between the four Allied powers on the new Soviet traffic regulations. Field-Marshal Montgomery has been having talks today with one of the Dominion and Allied leaders in Berlin. Tonight he had dinner with the Russian Military Governor, Marshal Sokolovsky, at the residence of the British Military Governor, General Robertson. The British Secretary for Air, Mr Arthur Henderson, who has been visiting the Royal Air Forces units in Germany, left Berlin tonight.on his way back to England.