ALLIES TO “SIT TIGHT” IN BERLIN

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22612, 15 April 1948, Page 5

ALLIES TO “SIT TIGHT” IN BERLIN

U.S. COMMANDER DETERMINED

WESTERN REGIME DEFERRED

RUSSIANS RELEASE PILED-UP GOODS (N.Z.P.A.—Reuter— Copyrißht.) (10 a.m.) LONDON, April 14. “The Western Allies are not going to be driven out of Berlin,’' said the American Military Governor, General L. Clay, speaking in Frankfurt today.

He said he expected the Russian pressure would continue, but he denied reports that the American Military Government headquarters would be moved from Berlin.

Awaiting- Elections

Reuter's correspondent in Berlin says it is reliably learned that Britain, France and America have abandoned as inexpedient proposals for the formal proclamation of a provisional tri-zonal West German Government before the elections for the Constituent Assembly.

The Western Powers, instead, are examining a proposal for extending the powers of the bizonal economic council to the political field. Release of 10QO Wagons The British United Press correspondent in Berlin reports that MajorGeneral Kotikov, the Russian commander of Berlin, has ordered the release of over 100 railway wagons loaded with parcels for Western Germay which piled up in Berlin because of the Russian restrictions. Reuter’s correspondent in Berlin quotes a British spokesman as saying that the Russians since April 10 have approved of 3200 bills of lading for German freight which means that German freight traffic out of Berlin, which the new Soviet traffic regulations delayed, is beginning to flow normally again. The Russians until now have allowed only two wagons to leave Berlin daily although about 15 are needed daily to carry the parcels In Austria today, Soviet guards allowed two British military convoys to pass through Semmering Pass road control point after only a 10-minute hold-up. The drivers produced the grey fourlanguage pass which the Russians pre viously claimed was insufficient. Military trains passed through the Soviet barrier at Semmering Pass after a slight delay, although military personnel refused Soviet demands for identity cards with photographs. British Win Verbal Battle The British authorities apparently won a victory in their verbal battle with Russians as to whether military personnel would have to show identity cards, with photographs, when passing through the Russian-occupied zone of Austria, says the Associated Press correpondent in Vienna British sources say that rail and road traffic is now normal. The Soviet representatives failed to attend a meeting of the Anglo-Soviet commission which is inquiring into the causes of the collision between a Bri tish airliner and a Russian fighter over Berlin.

The British representatives delayed the meeting and then proceeded without the Russians. The Times correspondent in Berlin says that the inquiry broke down at its third meeting. General Alexandrov, the senior Russian representative, declared that as it was a two-Power inquiry only Russian and British evidence could be heard. Air Commodore Waite replied that the British intention was to hear all witnesses, whatever their nationality. Both American and German witnesses were available and since American lives were lost in the disaster it would be impossible to exclude American witnesses merely because they were American. He refused to accept the Russian view that German evidence would be unreliable.

A separate British inquiry, he added, would open on Wednesdav and he invited the Russians to attend it, but the Times correspondent says, it seems improbable they will do so. It would be more in keeping with the recent Russian policy if they were to announce that the British, by refusing to continue the two-Power investigation in the manner prescribed by the Soviet representative, are responsible for bringing it to an end. The correspondent adds that there has‘never been the slightest doubt that what the Russians were aiming at was not an impartial investigation but an inquiry which would produce a report showing that responsibility for the disaster lay with the British pilot and British air control officials.