SOVIET ATTITUDE TOUGHENS

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXVI, Issue 14713, 3 July 1948, Page 3

SOVIET ATTITUDE TOUGHENS

NO ALLEVIATION OF BLOCKADE

Moscow's Reply To

Mr Bevin

"Position Very Serious," Says U.S. Governor

London, July 2

A message from Paris says that the reaction there to the news that the Russians have withdrawn from the Berlin Kommandatura the only four-Power body that was still functioning in Germany is that it shows a toughening of the Soviet attitude on the German question an.'i is proof that the blockade of Berlin will not be alleviated.

The Daily Telegraph's correspondent says that many French observers also interpret the Russian action as being Moscow's reply to Mr Bevin's speech in the House of Commons on Wednesday. Asked at Frankfurt if events in Germany were moving toward war. General Clay, Military Governor of the American ?one, said: "We don't like to answer 1 the question in that way. Present conditions in'Germany are very serious." However, he had not asked for any more troops. General Clay said the problems in Germany now maifb it impossible for him to retire from the Army as he had hoped to do. He would carry on with his job for as long as his Government ordered. He said he found it very difficult to understand the alleged Russian reason for ending four-Power rule in Berlin. He doubted whether the Soviet absence would complicate the administration of the city.