U.S. Rift With Bonn On Berlin

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29799, 16 April 1962, Page 13

U.S. Rift With Bonn On Berlin

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) WASHINGTON, April 15. The West German Chancellor (Dr. Adenauer) was reported yesterday to have objected strenuously to new United States proposals for Berlin, which he felt would move toward recognition of Communist East Germany.

Just before the start of a new round of AmericanSoviet talks on a possible Berlin settlement in Washington on Monday, crucial tensions appeared to be building' up between Washington and Bonn They reflected a growing lack of trust .on both sides, the Associated Press’s chief Washington correspondent said. The United States State Department yesterday protested to the Germans against what United States officials considered a deliberate leak of information about United States proposals for the new round of Berlin discussions. However, in Bonn, a West German Government spokesman said he knew nothing about Dr. Adenauer making any objections to the American proposals. The spokesman also denied on the basis of early information that his Government had leaked the proposals.

Press reports from Bonn indicated a lack of confidence in where the Kennedy Administration would draw the line on accommodations of Western policy with Soviet policy in its attempts to reach a settlement. Washington informants said Dr. Adenauer had made his objection known in unmistakable terms. The United Slates Secretary of State (Mr Rusk) is scheduled to confer on Berlin with the Soviet Ambassador (Mr Anatoly Dobrynin) tomorrow Four main proposals were set forth in the United States “working paper” submitted to allied Governments for comment and—Mr Rusk hoped—approval. Dr Adenauer was said to have objected, among other things, to a provision for freezing the present demarcation lines which divided East Germany and Poland, and East and West Germany, on the ground that this would give East G’-many new prestige and respect. Apparently Dr. Adenauer objected also to the modification of a United States proposal for an international authority to operate the Berlin supply lines. Under this proposition as it now stood the East Germans apparently

would have an important role to play, giving them a basis for claiming de facto recognition by the Western Powers. The four United States proposals in .brief were:— Internationalisation of the access routes to Berlin through Communist territory, with East Germany granted some voice in the multi-nation authority which would administer the air, land and water routes. An exchange of non-aggres-sion pledges between N.A.T.O. and the members of the Warsaw Pac: which would, in effect, recognise the division of East Germany and the validity of the OderNeisse line drawn after Poland was given a section of German territory. Agreement by the United States and the Soviet Union to prevent the further spread of nuclear weapons to other countries, an apparent attempt to quiet Soviet fears that West Germany would obtain such weapons. Creation of committees composed of both East and West Germans to handle trade, travel and cultural exchange matters between the two parts of the divided country.