ANOTHER MEETING AT KREMLIN

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 August 1948, Page 5

ANOTHER MEETING AT KREMLIN

The Moscow correspondent of the British United Press says that the Western envoys in Moscow have received fresh instructions embodying the views of their respective Governments on Berlin. Reuter’s correspondent in Moscow says that these views will be given to the Soviet Foreign Minister (Mr Molotov), probably on Monday. . “Three Berlin non-Communist political parties—Socialist, Christian Democrat and Liberal Democrat and the Trade Union Federation have demanded that no compromise be made at the Moscow talks which would establish the Soviet-sponsored currency as the sole exchange medium in Berlin,” says the Berlin correspondent of the Associated Press. Mr Eden’s Views On no account must the efforts of the Western Powers to rebuild German economic life in the Western zones be checked, said Mr R. A. Eden, speaking at Sunderland. Nobody who was not a Communist would want to see a decaying Germany at the heart of Europe. The decision to establish a provisional German regime at Frankfurt and the introduction of currency reforms had combined to give fresh vitality and hope to Germany west ol the Iron Curtain. . “The Soviets have consistently refused to treat Germany as an economic whole. They have not followed a policy of mutual help or common endeavour to meet Germany s economic difficulties. On the contrary, their constant practice has been to seize all and contribute nothing. As a result progress has been impossible and all Germany has been slithering into chaos. “People everywhere yearn tor a sense oil tranquility and long to be able to see clearly the way ahead. They can do this only if we can restore and reaffirm the rights of human liberty and respect for the faiths of man. If the peoples of Western Europe allow age-old liberties to decline, then freedom' will perish, fi we succeed in maintaining these

liberties I believe the hour will come when all Europe will march in step with us, even those lands where today a totalitarian State imposes its harsh rule.” The Berlin correspondent ol the Associated Press says that the Russians have evacuated the Kommandatura building in the American sector and hauled down their flag, thus completing their division of Berlin between East and West.

The British United Press correspondent in Frankfurt says that the British and United States ImportExport Agency says that _ the combined British and United States zones of Germany exported in July goods worth a record total of £13,750,000. Exports for the year already total £71,250,000, compared with £55,400,000 for the whole of last year. Purge in Soviet Zone “A purge of anti-Communists has been going on in the Russian zone of Germany' in the last month,” says the Berlin correspondent of the British United Press. “The Sozial Demokrat reports 300 arrests in the Dresden area alone. Fifteen factory managers, post office officials, and judges, are said to have been dismissed.” Reuter’s correspondent in Berlin says that the Soviet transport authorities in Berlin today rescinded an order which had held up barges carrying coal from the Gatow airfield and the Lake Havel flyingboat base to power stations in the Western sectors. A British waterways official said that in “a friendly talk” the Soviet authorities had explained that the order had been issued because barges had moved without a clearance through Berlin waterways under Soviet control. “The matter has now been straightened out,” he said. Reuter’s Berlin correspondent reports that British and American supply aeroplanes resumed the air lift into Berlin at dawn today. Torrential rains and bad visibility last night halted operations at both Tempelhof and Gatow.