BERLIN PREPARED FOR LIFTING OF BLOCKADE TO-DAY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27078, 12 May 1949, Page 7

BERLIN PREPARED FOR LIFTING OF BLOCKADE TO-DAY

New Zealand Press Association—Copyright Rec 10 p.m. ", - BERLIN, May 11.. Barge-owners, lorry-drivers, and railwaymen are making hurried last-minute preparations to roll into Berlin when the Russians lift the blockade at one minute after midnight to-morrow (Thursday). Barge-owners in Hamburg announced that they are ready to move 60,000 tons of supplies to Berlin provided the Russians give them the permits for which they have applied. Barges capable of moving another 40,000 tons are waiting to leave for Czechoslovakia as soon as inter-zonal permission is granted. On the autobahn, where it runs into the western sectors of Berlin from the Russian zone, workmen are working on check-point equipment and signs to Piake them ready for the first free traffic for nearly a year.

Western sector shops selling textiles and luxury goods imported from Western Germany have announced price reductions of up to 10 per cent. The Soviet zone Economic Commission announced the derationing of certain types of clothing, crockery, cycle tyres, furniture and radio sets. The approaching end of the blockade has knocked the bottom out of Berlin’s black market currency market. General Lucius Clay, the retiring United States Military Governor, said the new developments would not make the Russian zone a direct beneficiary of Marshall Plan aid. Trade would be by straight barter, but in the process the eastern zone would undoubtedly get some Marshall aid goods. Russians’ Surprise Move Western Berlin yesterday became a city of whirring vacuum cleaners and scorching electric irons when the Russians lifted the power blockade 36 hours ahead of schedule. Berlin house-

wives for the first time in months were able to serve cookqd lunches and catch up on arrears of washing and ironing. Large areas which for months had received only four or six hours’ electric power a day benefited, but others were still without electricity. The Russians last night offered to call off the East-West newspaper war in Germany and to permit the free circulation of western-licensed newspapers and periodicals in the Russian zone, says the British United Press correspondent. The Bavarian Government will ask the State Parliament for a plebiscite on the West German Constitution adopted at Bonn last Sunday. The people of Bavaria will be asked to say whether they approve the Constitution and whether if they disapprove they will recognise it as binding on Bavaria, provided it is accepted by two-thirds of the West German States. The Government will recommend that the people vote “ No ” to the first question and “Yes” to the second.