Russian Accusations

Northern Advocate, 24 November 1947, Page 5

Russian Accusations

Marshal Sokolovsky, Russian military commander in Germany, at a meeting of the Allied Control Council in Berlin last night accused Britain, France and America of multiple violations of the Potsdam Declaration and other agreements in the administration of occupied Germany, says a Tass Agency message quoted by Reuters correspondent in Moscow. Marshal Sokolovsky alleged that “left-over” military formations of the former German Army were preserved in the British zone under the guise of so-called labour groups and that German youths were being given militarytraining in the American zone by American instructors. He added that in the western zones of Germany practically no progress toward demilitarisation had been made in the last six months.

Sabotage of demilitarisation and preservation of the war potential both in the British and American zones could have no other purpose.,he said, except conversion of these zones into a military base of Anglo-American imperialism in the heart of Europe.

The British and American lists of factories to be dismantled in Germany consisted mostly of small second-rate units of civilian industries such as soap factories. The British and American-controlled Press was waging an anti-Communist propaganda campaign seeking to persuade Germans of the inevitability of a new war and the advantages of atomic weapons. The Associated Press correspondent in Berlin says the British delegate on the Allied Control Council (General Westropp) and the United States Military Governor (General Lucius Clay) both replied angrily. They said Marshal Sokolovsky was unfair in making charges at the council’s last meeting before the meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers —thus giving his colleagues no opportunity to reply. General Westropp rejected the statements as “old charges which have been refuted time and again.” He added that he assumed because of the timing of the statement that no reply was expected. The British United Press correspondent in Berlin says it was evident throughout the control council’s ses-; sion that feelings were strained almost to breaking point and that courtesy alone prevented General Clay, General Westropp and the French Military Governor. General Koenig, from walking out. After the meeting General Koenig said that Marshal Sokolovsky’s charge that France separated the Saar from the rest of Germany without authority was unfounded.

The other powers have been told what France intended to do and the measures conformed with the wishes of the Saar people.

General Clay said he did not intend on the eve of the London conference to enter into a “programme of recriminations or counter-charges.”

He preferred to let the record of the American Military Government speak for itself. Russia had made no request for information, had misinterpreted the known facts and had made charges without first seeking explanations.