WESTERN ZONES OF GERMANY

Press, Volume LXXXIIi, Issue 25214, 19 June 1947, Page 7

WESTERN ZONES OF GERMANY

BIZONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL GERMAN PARTIES’ CRITICISM (Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON. June 18. The joint working committee of the Social Democrat and Communist parties, which together comprise the Socialist Unity Party, has published a violent attack on the new machinery for economic co-operation between the British and United States zones of Germany, says the correspondent of “The Times” in Berlin. The committee described the bizonal economic council as an authoritarian body imposed by the military government and depriving the democratically elected state parliaments of their legislative powers. It alleged that the formation of the economic council was obviously intended to anticipate the Foreign Ministers’ meeting in London in November and to hamper discussions for the restoration of German unity. The correspondent says this attack is typical of the stream of propaganda inspired by the Russians and directed from Berlin which the German Communists have recently turned against the British and Americans in the west and in Berlin. It also serves the purpose of diverting attention from the Russian zone.