Western Passes To Germans Not Acceptable

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25547, 15 July 1948, Page 5

Western Passes To Germans Not Acceptable

TROOP MOVEMENTS REPORTED NEAR ZONE BORDER (N.Z. Press Association— Copyright) (Rec. 11-60 p.m.) LONDON, July 14. The Russian authorities in Berlin have issued an order that ill Berliners who leave for the west must get inter-zonal passes only from the Soviet Kommandatura. Up to now inter-zonal passes have been issued by the commandants of the separate sectors. The new order, m effect, gives the Russian authorities full control over all Germans who wish to enter or leave Berlin regardless of the sector of the city in which they live or which they w ish to visit. The Soviet authorities have also ordered that offences against Soviet currency reform orders must be tried by a Russian tribunal. Berlin legal circles interpret the order as a step to divide the fourpower administration of justice in Berlin. The British United Press correspondent in Brunswick reports that between 50,000 and 60,000 Russian troops have arrived for manoeuvres at Ottersleben, near Magdeburg. Magdeburg is on the railway from Berlin to the British zone, 30 miles from the tonal border. Two thousand Germans cheered Mr Anthony Eden and broke through a military police cordon when fie arrived at the British Information Centre in Berlin to-day. He told German political leaders that the British Opposition strongly endorsed the measures the Western Allies had taken in Berlin. “They are the only means, open to preserve peace,” he aid. “If there was ever a time to stand firm it is this. All of us in Britain admire the fortitude with which you are bearing events. You are not prepared to be intimidated.”