BERLIN AIR LIFT

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25679, 16 December 1948, Page 7

BERLIN AIR LIFT

Crisis Expected f Next Month FLYING HAZARDS IN WINTER (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) ®ec. 9 P- m > LONDON, Dec. 15. . Toe organisers of the. Berlin air lift are bracing themselves to meet the most critical phase of the fight to take the blockaded western sectors of the city through the winter without an economic and industrial collapse,” says the Berlin correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph.” **A crisis is inevitable towards the end of January. By then the stocks'of coal in hand before the blockade start* ed will be nearly exhausted. There will consequently have to be still further restrictions on industrial activity, and these will cause increased unemployment and distress. The. . a * r lift planners believe that the crisis can be overcome without a disastrous breakdown, provided the winter is not exceptionally severe and there is no unforeseen adverse development in the g'eneral situation. There is no question of the German rood ration having to be reduced.” Reuter’s correspondent in Wiesbaden quotes Major-General J. K. Cannon, commander of the United States Air Forces in Europe, as saying that 225 bkymasters will be available for the Berlin air lift from the New Year. Reuter’s Berlin correspondent reports that the Western Military Governors have authorised the establishment ot .headquarters o£ the City Bank and City Savings Bank in the western sectors. This will give finance officials the choice of remaining in the eastern sector, where the headquarters now are, or of moving to the western sectors.

The Berlin correspondent of “The limes ’ says that the number of employees who will continue to serve the legally-elected administration as a result of the establishment of bank headquarters in the western sectors is likely to be large. The loyalty of the h» rva JL ts u of ri g h tful magistrate, ne adds, has been shown in an encouraging way, the more so as, working in the Russian sector, they have keen ° Pen tO many kinds of intimida-

Exchange Rate for Marks neuter s correspondent in Berlin says that the Soviet authorities have announced for the first time an exchange rate between western and east®rn, X? arks \ T he rate for a limited sum marks western mark s for 100 eastern

• The German Economic Commission in the Soviet zone said that the exchange rate had been fixed on the basis of wholesale price indices in the western and Soviet zones. Few travellers are expected to take advantage of this rate, because one western mark will buy nearly four eastern marks at licensed exchange booths m western Berlin. The black rate in the Soviet zone is reported to be even higher. According to the British-licensed German newspaper “Die Telegref’’ the Russians are attempting to camouflage their policy of rearmament in the Soviet zone by distributing Germans wnq have been thoroughly trained as police shock troops in small groups in nationalised and private factories. It says that' this method has been copied ■vi Om Black Reichswehr—the illegal German army built up after the first world war—detachments of which were, stationed on junkers’ estates disguised as land workers.