SOVIET GOVERNOR OPPOSES WEST BERLIN ELECTIONS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22808, 1 December 1948, Page 7

SOVIET GOVERNOR OPPOSES WEST BERLIN ELECTIONS

(9 a.m.) LONDON, Nov. 30 Marshal Sokolovsky, the Russian Military Governor, has for the first time intervened personally in the steadily worsening municipal crisis in Berlin by addressing to the three Western Military Governors a letter expressing the Soviet concern at the developments in the Western sectors and reiterating his disapproval of next Sunday’s municipal elections in those sectors. Marshal Sokolovsky’s letters allege that next Sunday’s elections are aimed at the removal of the City’s unified administration and the creation of a separate administration in' the Western sectors. East German Government “In this way,” he says, “the Western military authorities will be able to order and dictate as they please without control and to support openly reactionary elements." These elements, he adds, are trying to exclude from city administration the democratic representatives of the people of Berlin. The Soviet Command, he declares, “cannot accept this and does not intend to show tolerance to anti-democratic elements of the City Council in their actions to split German administrative organisations in Berlin.” The Times’ correspondent in Berlin says that the phrasing of Marshal Sokolovsky’s letter makes it a statement which must be left to events for its full interpretation, but the threat to what Marshal Sokolovsky calls the “anti-democratic elements” caused immediate disquiet. A Russian military tribunal, the correspondent points out, has already formally declared almost all the leading democratic politicians ro be “warmongers” liable to punishment under the Potsdam agreement and the way is thus open for the arrest of the men who head the three-party lists for Sunday. It is known that several of these politicians feel themselves in danger. Not Acceptable to Russians The Times’ correspondent says the general tone of the letter makes it difficult to rule out the possibility that the Russians may be contemplating action beyond the establishment of an administration which they would be content to see controlling the Eastern sector only. The Times’ diplomatic correspondent says that spokesmen in the Soviet zone of Germany are beginning to throw out hints that the Russians intend to establish a German Government in Berlin. Sources in close touch with the Russians said that Marshal Sokolovsky’s letter was not just another protest as the Russians are prepared to back it with action to create a separate administration.