Berlin Solution "In Last Stage'

Press, Volume C, Issue 29682, 28 November 1961, Page 11

Berlin Solution "In Last Stage'

(N .Z.P .A.-Reuter—Copyright)

BERLIN, November 26. The “struggle” for a German peace treaty and peaceful solution of the Berlin problem “is entering its last stage,” the East German Communist Party central committee said in a communique at the end of its four-day meeting in East Berlin today.

The communique said the East German Prime Minister (Mr Otto Grotewohl) took part in the meeting for a time, showing he was on the way to recovery. Mr Grotewohl has been ill for more than a year. Earlier the East German Communist leader, Mr Walter Ulbricht, had said that the wall dividing Berlin would go only when West Germany left the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and when “Hitler generals, militarist and revanchist politicians” and West Berlin City Government “provocateurs” were out of the way. His speech to the central committee was published today by “Neues Deutschland,” the main Communist newspaper. Western Rights He termed Western occupation rights in Berlin “non-existent.*! The Western Powers “want us, as traffic policemen, to ensure the uninterrupted transport of their war materials, spies and saboteurs for their subversive activities against ourselves and our allies,” Mr UJbricht said. He also indirectly criticised Chinese Communist leaders for supporting Albania at the recent Soviet Communist Party Congress, saying it would have been “desirable” for them to have remarked on the anti-Soviet stand of the Albanian leaders. Mr Ulbricht said it was an “inescapable fact” that the Soviet party had "cemented” its leading role at the congress. He also appealed for EastWest German negotiations aimed at improving relations between the two States. He proposed a five-point plan which observers said waa a less detailed version of the long plan he put forward during the summer. Berlin, the Mayor (Mr Willy Brandt) said the Berlin border wall was a primitive lode built by the Communists to prevent East Germany “bleeding to 5 Speaking in a broadcast he described the wall as similar to the East German GovernHe added: "It is a monuat the Stalinist spirit erected so as to enforce terror against its own people.** Border Incidents B was Memorial Day in Berlin—a day when graves B redecorated—and West necs gathered at the to try to see the graves of relatives in cemeteries in East Berlin. Mr Brandt earlier assured East Berliners that the graves of their relatives in. West Berlin would continue to be decorated without cost. There were several incidents. At one spot, toe East Berlin guards threw a tear gas grenade at a West Berlin woman waving across the border. . • At another point on the border. East Berlin guards watched as about 1000 Berliners attended the unveiling of a “memorial to the unknown refugee.” The memorial was erected at toe spot where two refugees died while trying to swim to the West.

Five British M.P.’s today took a look at the wall dividing Berlin end called it “shocking cruelty.” After their tour they went through East Berlin in a British Army bus. The leader of the group, Mr John Henderson, said they were shocked by what I they saw and were deeply i impressed by the pathos of people looking across toe , wall for a glimpse of loved ' ones on toe other side. They were also moved by the sad sight of wreaths laid on the pavement along Bernauerstrasse to mark the spots where people were killed trying to jump to freedom, Mr Henderson said. Reuters reported that West Berlin police today threw at least 50 tear gas grenades at East German police who bombarded West Berliners with chunks of plaster, ! empty bottles, bricks and concrete slabs from roofs along the Bernauerstrasse.

Da? in graves West the