RUSSIANS LIFT MAIL BAN

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25677, 14 December 1948, Page 5

RUSSIANS LIFT MAIL BAN

RECENT BERLIN ORDER REVOKED SOVIET WARNING TO WESTERN AIRCRAFT (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 7 p.m.) LONDON. December 12. The Russian authorites in Berlin have lifted the ban on the exchange of mails between the western and eastern sectors of Berlin which they imposed last week. The Soviet Chief of Staff in Germany (Lieutenant-General Lukyanchenko), in a letter to the American Chief of Staff (Brigadier-General Gatley) said that the Russians would force down any aircraft improperly marked or making “disorderly” flights over the Soviet zone. He indicated that the Russians were dissatisfied with the way the United States authorities had received and acted on a similar Russian warning on November 9. The Frankfurt radio to-day quoted the United States Military Governor in Germany (General Lucius Clay) as saying that there were no indications in Germany or Eastern Europe of extraordinary Soviet military preparations. General Clay added that the Soviet Union had lost ground during the last 12 months and had not hampered European reconstruction. The Red Army newspaper “Taegliche Rundschau” has announced that the workers’ councils which played a big part in running factories in the eastern zone of Germany are to be abolished, and their functions taken over by the Communist-controlled trade unions. This will wipe out the last legal means the workers have of expressing their opposition to Russian policies. Reuter’s Berlin correspondent says that the Liberal Democrat Parties of the Western zones and Berlin have decided to merge into a “Free Democrat Party.” The Berlin correspondent of “The Times” says that two of the five states of the Soviet zone—Saxony and Thur* ingia—have adopted a law making all cinemas State property. No compensation is being made to the owners, but in Saxony an additional law has been passed under which it' will be possible for former proprietors to continue as managers. A similar law is expected soon in the other states of the eastern zone. Nationalisation will ensure even stricter control over what films are exhibited and will bring eastern Germany in line with the other “people’s democracies.”