Western Protest On Berlin

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31723, 5 July 1968, Page 9

Western Protest On Berlin

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) MOSCOW, July 4. The Western big three protested to the Soviet Union yesterday against East Germany’s restrictions on access to Berlin, but the Soviet leader, Mr Leonid Brezhnev, defended the restrictions and dismissed Western “irritation” over them.

The United States, Britain, and France delivered separate protest Notes to the Soviet Government calling upon it “to fulfil its international obligation to assure freedom of access to Berlin” by overruling the East German restrictions.

But, speaking at a Kremlin rally, the Community Party general secretary, Mr Mrezhnev said East Germany had a “right to protect its territory ” The restrictions “are in absolute contradiction to the aim of relaxation of tension vhich inspires the policy of the three Western Powers,” the protesters said in identical Notes handed to the Soviet Foreign Ministry. “Such measures,” they said, "risk bringing about an increase of tension,” harming efforts to achieve closer cooperation between Eastern and Western Europe. . . .” “As is known,” Mr Brezhnev said, “the (East) German Democratic Republic has recently carried out a number

of measures directed toward the further strengthening of its sovereignty.

‘These measures have provoked irritation in the Federal Republic of (West) Germany and in some other countries.

“There, they can in no way reconcile themselves with the fact that the German Democratic Republic as well as any other sovereign State has the full right to protect its borders, its territory.” The identical Western Notes contended that the fourPower obligations established after World War II still existed, requiring the Soviet Union to insure access to Berlin. This amounted to a Western denial of the Soviet contention that East Germany is a validly sovereign nation. Mr Brezhnev spoke at a Kremlin “friendship meeting” for a Hungarian Communist Party and Government delegation. His speech came soon after United States, British and French diplomats had delivered the Notes.