Four Foreign Ministers Are Mo Nearer Common Ground on German Unity

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27092, 28 May 1949, Page 7

Four Foreign Ministers Are Mo Nearer Common Ground on German Unity

New Zealand Press Association—Copyright

Rec. 9 p.m. LONDON, May 27. The Council of Foreign Ministers talked again for four hours yesterday about German unity but at the end appeared to be no nearer to common ground that they were when the debate started on Monday. The special correspondent of The Juries in Paris says that Mr Andrei Vyshinsky (Russia) not only tenaciously defended his proposal to restore Four-Power control of Germany but also counter-attacked

The Western Powers may assert, said Mr Vyshinsky, that they want to give the Germans full powers of Government subject to security reservations. But if their occupation statute were examined it would be found that foreign trade, currency, external relations and a multitude of other things apparently came under the heading of security. Mr Vyshinsky added that the substance of the Russian proposals was a single German central organ of a governmental character —without that there could be no unity in Germany—subject to control by the Four-Power (Allied) Control Council. To lighten this task the cdhtrol council may devolve some

Schumann’s questions. He repeated the proposal. Economic and political unity, he said, could be reached only through a single central German organisation with definite functions and duties.

After criticising conditions in Western Germany, Mr Vyshinsky compared them with conditions in the Soviet zone. He listed the benefits conferred oh the German population in the deliveries of raw materials, food, and finished goods by the Soviet Union to Eastern Germany. Mr Acheson, who was in the chair, thanked Mr Vyshinsky for his information. He said he hoped he would continue to produce information about the Soviet zone, and that he would supply facts on such subjects as reparations, Soviet ownership of property in the Eastern zone, and other matters which were fundamental to the consideration of the problem before the meeting. Mr Acheson said the Soviet proposal for a return to Four-Powex control was on a road that could not be travelled by a reasonably prudent man. "No one questions that there should be a supreme authority in Germany and an Allied authority,” he said. “We in the West have created real unity, raised economic standards, dealt with many of the outstanding problems, and have turned Western Germany into a going concern. By a vast effort we have created a peaceful democratic society with an essential economic substructure.” Mr Bevm said he would like to confront the large number of people who came over into the Western zones from the Eastern zone with Mr Vyshinsky’s remarkable, picture of Eastern zone progress. Thereby, he said, they might possibly be induced to return. British delegation officials have estimated that the stream of Eastern refugees into Western Germany was around 45,000 a month. Of these, roughly 30,000 reached the British zone. Mr Vyshinsky replied that in the Eastern zone they had a numoer _of persons who came from the British zone. He always felt that too much trust should not be put in the tales they brought.

powers on the German administration. M. Robert Schumann (France) pointed out that there was no provision for political organisation. “We are being invited to put the roof on before the four walls are built,” he said. Mr Vyshinsky’s reply was that the council must be fouifded on existing economic organs because there were no political organs in either zone. Mr Dean Aclieson (United States) and Mr Ernest Bevin (Britain) both repeated that the question was not whether FourPower control should be restored but whether the Four Powers involved could agree to do the things necessary for German unity. The Times correspondent adds that hitherto the debates have been conducted with good temper but irritation is growing m Western circles over the offences of the Soviet Union against the New York agreement concerning the raising of the Berlin blockade. The Russians are believed to be attempting to limit the volume of supplies reaching Berlin and to acquire such control over the movement of supplies as will permit them to be cut off at will. Whether the idea is to bring pressure on the Western Governments and the Council of Foreign Ministers, or has the more limited purpose of compelling the Western Military. Governors in Berlin to organise trade between the Eastern and Western zones on Russian terms, is not quite clear When the meeting opened, M. Schumann, speaking first, asked Mr Vyshinsky to clarify the economic aspects of his proposals for a return to Four-Power control of Germany. He wanted to hear the Soviet views on such questions as reparations and Soviet-owned trusts, and whether Mr Vyshinsky was proposing any modification in the existing economy of the Soviet zone. Mr Vyshinsky said his proposal was a clear statement which answered M.