RUSSIANS REOCCUPY FRENCH ZONE TOWN

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22824, 20 December 1948, Page 5

RUSSIANS REOCCUPY FRENCH ZONE TOWN

(11 a.m.) BERLIN, Dec. 19. The French commandant of Berlin, General Ganeval, has, at the request of the Russian commandant, General Kotikov, evacuated the village of Stolpe in the French sector of Berlin, says the British licensed newspaper Telegraf. Stolpe was originally part of the Soviet occupation zone but was included in the French sector in 1945 by agreement between the French and Russian military authorities. The Russians have reoccupied Stolpe which has a population of 1000. The Associated Press says the Soviei request is regarded as a retaliation for the demolition by General Ganeval’s engineers of the Russian-controlled Berlin radio stations’ transmission towers.

French Surrender Town

The French military command confirmed it is returning to Russian occupation the village of Stolpe, adjoining Berlin, says the Associated Press correspondent in Berlin. The French spokesman said the French commandant had offered to give back Stolpe last Wednesday—one day before the engineers dynamited the transmission towers of Soviet-controlled radio in Berlin. The offer was made to the Russians after the Soviet protest against the French plans to demolish the towers as a hazard to the Anglo-American airlift planes at Tegel, the new French airfield inside Berlin.

The Russians gave up Stolpe on October 29, 1945, in accordance with a bilateral protocol to provide the French with a suitable airfield site adjacent to the Berlin sector. general L. Clay, U.S. Military Governor, at an informal press conference, thanked the French for blowing up the towers of the Soviet-dominated Berlin radio, says the Associated Press correspondent in Frankfurt. “I am grateful to the French for their action in removing a real source of danger to our pilots on the air-lift,” he said. Asked if he knew what the Soviet retaliation might be. General Clay said he did not know and he did not care. Observers in Berlin speculating whether the Russians, in retaliation, may cut Berlin’s telephone and telegraph links with the British zone and the rest of the world. Allied officials in Berlin stated that preparations have been made for such an eventuality. A special radio-tele-phone transmitter has already been installed at Harz in the British zone. The Russian-controlled Berlin radio station is believed to be using the Soviet zone radio station 15 miles from Berlin for its medium-wave transmissions since the French blew up the Berlin Radio’s transmission towers.

Reception outside Berlin is reported to be fainter than usual.