TALKS ON BERLIN

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29101, 13 January 1960, Page 11

TALKS ON BERLIN

Adenauer’s Demands

BERLIN, January 12.

In a radio interview last night the West German Chancellor (Dr. Adenauer) said he believed the Soviet Union wanted a relaxation of international tensions, but the West should remain vigilant and “should not believe they have the relaxation in their pockets now.”

Dr. Adenauer, who ii in West Berlin, yesterday served notice that he was in open conflict with Britain regarding negotiations with Russia over Berlin. Britain has said that definite progress towards an interim agreement on Berlin was made at the Foreign Ministers’ conference at Geneva last year and that negotiations should carry on from there.

In a speech to the Berlin City Parliament, Dr. Adenauer said that in his view “nothing could be more false or wrong than to begin again where we left off.” The original proposals no longer existed, he said. The Russians had rejected them once and that was that. At the Geneva conference the West offered to reduce its 11,000man garrison in West Berlin, give East German border guards the right to check on Allied military traffic, put a limit on propaganda activities and make a pledge not to bring atomic weapons into the city. Dr. Adenauer said the Western stand at Geneva had reached the “extreme border of what is tolerable.”

Without mentioning names, Dr. Adenauer said: “I have been astounded when I meet Premiers and others who direct the policy of foreign nations to find how little they know of dictators.”