OUTPUT OF STEEL

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22510, 13 December 1947, Page 5

OUTPUT OF STEEL

GERM AN_ PLANTS FUTURE TOP LEVEL MINISTERS’ AGREEMENT LONDON, Dec. 11. The Council of Foreign Ministers fixed a maximum of 11,500,000 ingot tons as the future top level of the German yearly steel production. - Mr. Ernest Bevin said the Allied Control Council should devise a plan for German industry based on the agreed figure. M. Molotov said he preferred a figure of 10,000,000 tons, but M. Bidault objected, whereupon M. Molotov saying, “The Soviet delegation is ready, as always, to grant concessions,” agreed to the British figure, which the council adopted. M. Bidault emphasised that he accepted the British figure on condition that the German coal exports were maintained. He also wanted a special regime in the Ruhr guaranteed by a four-Power treaty. The conference added that the Control Commission should issue by April 15 a final list of the plant and equipment to be removed from Germany. The Ministers were debating the question as to what plant and equipment was to be removed from Germany when the council adjourned till tomorrow. Reuter’s diplomatic writer describes the meeting as the most successful of the present session. The Foreign Ministers on Wednesday reached the issue which is going to make or break the present conference, namely, the Russian proposal that reparations should be taken out of current German production. “I wish it to be clearly understood,” Mr. Marshall told M. Molotov, “that the United States is not prepared to agree to any programme.of reparations from current production as the price for unification of Germany.” The Daily Telegraph's diplomatic correspondent says he has a high authority for saying that unless there is an agreement on this question the conference will collapse. Mr. Marshall is determined to force a decision from the conference and, if he cannot do so, he will refuse to consider' any other item on the agenda. British steel production in November, at the annual rate of 14,174,000 tons, was the highest ever recorded for November, though slightly less than in October, , when it reached an annual rate of 14,316,000 tons.

BRITAIN BARS ENTRY

GERMAN DELEGATION (10 a.m.) LONDON, Dec. 12. The- British Government refused to issue visas to 17 Germans whom the German “People’s Congress” elected to travel to London to place its views before the Foreign Ministers. The Socialist Unity Party in the Soviet zone held a congress in Berlin last week-end to mobilise German opinion behind the Russian policy.