WESTERN POWERS’ PROTEST— Soviet Restrictions On Berlin Traffic

Greymouth Evening Star, 21 May 1949, Page 6

WESTERN POWERS’ PROTEST— Soviet Restrictions On Berlin Traffic

LONDON, May 20.—A1l three Western Powers lodged protests in Berlin last night against .the Soviet interference with the free flow of traffic from Western Germany to Berlin. The protests were addressed to General Chuikov, the newly-appoint-ed Soviet commander-in-chief. The Berlin correspondent of the Daily Telegraph says that the British proest was in “strong and firm” terms.

The Berlin correspondent of The Times says it is understood that the .Soviet authorities in Berlin are acting on direct instructions from Moscow. There is speculation why the Soviet action has been taken on the eve of the Paris conference of Foreign Ministers. “One reason is seen in the disconcerting result of the elections- in the Russian zone of Germany, but there are other reasons,” the correspondent continues. “The Russians are showing themselves apprehensive of the political effects of the great flow of goods from the West. “As the French-licensed newspaper Kurier said last night, ‘Western Berlin is an island of well-being, surrounded by the poverty of the Eastern zone.’ There is an abundance of food in Berlin today—a situation unknown for many years—and supplies of such things as oranges, lemons, fresh fish and meat are attracting buyers from Eastern Berlin, where the State-owned shops alone have hitherto been able to retail them at black market prices. “In short, Berlin has become a shop window in the political as well as the business sense.” “Not Even A Beginning” The lifting of the Berlin blockade was not even a beginning to the solution of Germany's future, said the United States Secretary of State (Mr Dean Acheson), in a statement issued tonight. However, Mr Acheson continued, he thought that the forthcoming meeting of the Foreign Ministers’ Council in Paris would have a better opportunity than ever before of reaching a workable and effective agreement with Russia on Germany. He said he would carry an open mind into the talks, and would neglect no real opportunity for an agreement; but the United States had no intention of bartering away the successes it had already achieved in the economic and political rebuilding of Western Germany, for the sake of promises which again might prove to be illusory. Mr Acheson appealed for steadiness and consistency in the United States’ foreign policy. It would be tragic if Americans were lulled into slackening their efforts for European recovery and Western unity at a time

when America’s policies were showing the first signs of. success. If the United States shifted its foreign policy every time there was a raising or lowering of the international temperature, . the net effect would be to put the control of United States policy in foreign Hands. “Our foreign policy has been, and must continue to be, guided by the fundamental interests of the United States in our quest for world peace and security,” Mr Acheson concluded. Prospects Of Success The Times of London, in a leading article published this morning, says: “If, at next week’s four-Power meeting on Germany, Mi’ Vyshinsky were to come forward with reasonable and practical proposals," some measure of agreement would at least be possible. It is in the Kremlin, rather than round the conference table, that success or failure will be determined. “Given the bleak fact of the division of Germany under different systems of government, the most that can be expected from the Paris meeting, seems to be a loose association of the two parts, with some central German technical administration arranging for transport, communications and inter-zonal trade under four-Power supervision.”