CONTROL ADVISED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22619, 23 April 1948, Page 5

CONTROL ADVISED

WESTERN PLANES TRAFFIC TO BERLIN SOVIET PROPOSALS (N.Z.P.A. —Reuter —Copyright.) (11 a .m.) BERLIN, April 22. The Soviet inquiry commission into the collision be.ween the British airliner and the Soviet lighter over Berlin on April 5, recommended that for the tuture safety, Marsnal Sokolovsky should impose restrictions reown mg American, British and French authorities to give 24 hours advance notice ol each flight over the Soviet zone and also prohibit the Allies using the air carridors at nignt or fly so that the planes cannot be seen from the giound. The Russian report alleged tnat the British have removed certain parts of the Yak plane “to give the impression that it did not have its, landing gear down preparing to land ” . . The commission considers that Britain should compensate the family of the Russian pilot. The Associated Press correspondent quotes the United States Military Government spokesman as saying that t'he Western Allies had already rejected in the Allied Control Council proposals for restrictions similar to those that the Soviet air inquiry commission recommends. The spokesman added that the Western Allies expected that the Russians might now attempt to nut unilaterally. Major-General Brownjohn, the British Deputy Military Governor of Germany, denied the Russian charges that the British had “tampered” with the wreckage of the Yak fighter or falsified the evidence. The Russian authorities banned two Allied coaches attached to the Nord express running daily between Berlin and Paris. The ban mainly affects French passengers. The French authorities have lodged a protest. The British spokesman said the British Military Government was not prepared to discuss the stoppage of the inland waterway traffic between the British and Soviet zones on the Rus--1 sian terms before the British had entered into any discussions on the subject. The Russians would have to release the barge they were holding because of alleged improper documentation.