Administration of Germany Criticised by Russian Military Commander

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26626, 24 November 1947, Page 5

Administration of Germany Criticised by Russian Military Commander

Rec. 9 p.m. LONDON, Nov. 22. Marshal Sokolovsky, the Russian military commander 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 message quoted by Reuter’s Moscow correspondent. Marshal Sokolovsky alleged that the “ 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 military training in the American zone by American instructors. He added that in the western zones of Germany practically no progress towards demilitarisation had been made in the last six months.

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

Marshal Sokolovsky said that 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 Americancontrolled press was waging anticommunist propaganda, seeking to persuade Germans of the inevitability of a new war and the advantages of atomic weapons.

The Associated Press correspondent in Berlin reports that the British delegate on the Allied Control Council, General Victor Westropp, and the United States Military Governor, General Zacius Clay, both replied angrily. They said that Marshal Sokolovsky was unfair in making charges at the Council’s last meeting before the Foreign Ministers’ conference — thus giving his colleagues no opportunity to reply. General Westropp rejected the statement as “ old charges which have been refuted time and time again,’ and added that he assumed that, because of the timing of the statement, no reply was expected. The Berlin correspondent of the British United Press says that General Clay will make a public reply to Marshal Sokolovsky’s charges. It was evident throughout the Control Council's session that feelings were strained to almost breaking point and that courtesy alone prevented General Westropp and the French Governor. General MariePierre Koenig, from walking out. General Koenig after the meeting said that Marshal Sokolovsky s charge that France separated the Saar from the rest of Germany without authority was unfounded. Other Powers had been told what France intended to do and the measures conformed to the wishes to the Saar people. # Observers in London regard Marshal Sokolovsky’s attack as one more indication that the Great Powers are approaching the Big Four meeting on November 25 in no spirit of compromise, but in expectation of a violent clash, says Reuter’s diplomatic correspondent. It was pointed out that the attack was more significant in its timing than in detailed criticisms, which the Western Powers have already answered several times.

In Berlin to-night General Clay said that Marshal Sokolovsky’s attack on the eve of the Foreign Ministers conference was “ very unfortunate. Marshal Sokolovsky’s statement contained nothing new. He could not even guess c-t the Russian aim in publishing it ot thi? time. General Clay said ne did not intend, on the eve 9f the London conference, of entering a “ programme of recriminations or counter charges.” He preferred to let Ihe record of the American Military Government speak for itself, and added that Russia had made no; request for infc -mation, but had misinterpreted known facts and' made charges without first seeking explanations. It has become manifest that the Government bod} in Germany is not functioning, he concluded.