Ratified By Nine States

Northern Advocate, 21 May 1949, Page 5

Ratified By Nine States

German Constitution

BERLIN, Fri. (12.45 p.m.).—Five German state legislatures—Hesse, Bremen, Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Hol-stein and .North Rhine-Westphalia— today ratified the Bonn draft constitution for the proposed federal state of Western Germany.

Nine states have now approved the constitution.

The Hesse State Parliament ratified the institution by an overwhelming majority, says Reuters Weisbaden correspondent. Only the eight Communist members voted against the ratification. The Parliament also adopted a motion opposing the choice of Bonn as the federal capital. Communists today uaged a mass protest in front of the North RhineWestphalia Government House against West Germany’s constitution, says the Associated Press Dusseldorf correspondent. Inside, deputies were meeting to act on the proposed constitution. The Communists carried placards calling for a uniform democratic Germany, with Berlin as the capital. FOUR-POWER TALKS. The British Foreign Minister (Mr Ernest Bevin) arrived in Paris tonight for preliminary week-end talks with his Western colleagues before beginning the Big Four meeting on Germany on May 23. Diplomatic circles in Paris consider that no major differences exist between the Western powers in their approach to the four-Power talks. In Moscow, Pravda’s political correspondent has given a broad hint that the Russians expect concessions from the Western powers.

He writes that whether the negotiations bring successful results depends upon the attitude taken by the Western powers. French diplomatic circles, however, think that M. Vyshinsky will face a common front from the West on:

(1) Keeping Russia out of control of the Ruhr.

(2) Maintaining the West German slate.

(3) Determination not to abandon Germany to her own resources.