GERMANS WELCOME DECISION

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25797, 7 May 1949, Page 7

GERMANS WELCOME DECISION

In Berlin, General Robertson said he did not think that petty difficulties would hinder the raising of the blockade. He was not disturbed by the fact that the four-Power communique did not specifically say that the restrictions on communications and trade between Berlin and the Soviet zone must be raised by the Russians. “I should regard it as part of the agreement that there should be no restrictions on trade between the Soviet zone and Berlin, other than purely mechanical ones arising from the fact that two different currencies are involved,” General Roberts.on added. German political leaders have welcomed the agreement to lift the Ber blockade. , Er. Suhr, chairman of the postern Berlin City Assembly, said that the agreement, coupled with the enactment of the Bonn Constitution ,? r Western Germany, was an indication of Germany’s “rebirth.” The

Mayor of the Soviet sector of Berlin hailed the end of the blockade as being the result of the Soviet’s “policy of peace.” Mr Hermann Luedeinann, Premier of Schleswig-Holstein, sent a telegram to Professor Ernst Reuter, Lord Mayor of Western Berlin, saying: “I hope this is the first step towards winning back the Eastern zone of Germany for freedom and democracy.” Political parties in Western Berlin plan to celebrate the end of the blockade with a mass political meeting on May 12. The United States Military Governor in Germany (General Lucius Clay) said yesterday that the Berlin air lift would continue fully until Western Berlin had a stockpile of food and coal of more than 200,000 tons. Allied officials in Berlin said they were making arrangements to rush 25.000 tons of food and fuel into the city by rail in the first 36 hours after the blockade was lifted.