“A NEW TEST NOW BEGINS"

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25796, 6 May 1949, Page 7

“A NEW TEST NOW BEGINS"

“The Times,” London, describes the agreement on the lifting of the Berlin blockade as a vindication of Western determination. “It is the reward of steady nerves and insistence on esr tablished rights,” it says. It adds: “A new test now begins, no less exacting and in its own way no less dangerous than the tense battle of wills which is now ending.” The “New York Herald Tribune” Says: “The Berlin agreement itself obviously is little more than a declaration of truce on the front of the cold war. but it is a truce based so squarely on the mutual needs of the contending parties—rather than on any expectation by one of over-reaching the other —as to give rise to very great hopes that the further negotiations in broader fields will not prove barren. “It is true that even though the Problem of Berlin is settled the problem of Germany remains and will remain as a very difficult, delicate, and dangerous problem for all who must deal with it.” Mr John Foster Dulles, the United States Republican Party expert on foreign affairs, said Russia’s decision to lift the blockade should be regarded as a change of method, not a change of policy. Russia had tried to drive Allies from Berlin, so that the Soviet would be regarded as paramount in Europe. The German people, Mr Dulles added, would now be in-

! dined to bargain between East and i West. i The American Federation of Labour to-day gave a warning against co.n- • cessions to the Soviet Union’s desire to “block the immediate formation of i a West German democratic govern- • ment.” The warning was embodied in i a letter sent by Mr Matthew Woll, president of the federation’s free trade ' union committee, to the United States ’ Secretary of State (Mr Dean Acheson). Although organised labour welcomed I the decision to lift the Berlin blockade any “price tag” attached to this ; concession should be condemned as a sinister manoeuvre by the Kremlin in ■ its unrelenting cold war, said Mr Woll. i “In no circumstances should we make even the slightest concession to Russia’s efforts to infiltrate and penej trate the Ruhr, the industries of which : must serve only* the w»lfare of a i democratic Germany and the recon- • struction'of a united free Europe. ■ “We further warn against any move whatsoever to delay, devitalise, or > destroy the Atlantic Pact as an in-; strument for deterring and if need be defeating Russian imperialist ag- : gressors, nor should any member of , Congress be fooled by the latest Soviet totalitarian trick into believing that it is no longer vitally urgent to implenfent the Atlantic Pact with adequate arms for its war-weakened adherents.”