RUSSIA IS TO REDUCE REPARATIONS PAYMENTS FROM EASTERN GERMANY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27391, 17 May 1950, Page 7

RUSSIA IS TO REDUCE REPARATIONS PAYMENTS FROM EASTERN GERMANY

New Zealand Press Association—Reuter—Copyright Rec. 9 p.m. LONDON, May 16. Moscow radio early today announced that the Soviet Government had decided to cut reparations payments from Eastern Germany. The radio said the cut was announced in a letter from Mr Stalin to Mr Otto Grotewohl, Prime Minister of East Germany, who had asked Mr Stalin for a reduction in reparations payable by East Germany to the Soviet Union.

The letter said: “ The Soviet Government-, after agreement with the Government of the Polish Republic, has decided to reduce the remaining sum due as reparations by 50 per cent., that is, to 3,171,000,000 dollars.”

The letter added that the reduction had been motivated by a “ desire to ease the efforts of the German people to restore and develop German economy, and in consideration of the friendly relations established between the Soviet Union and the German Democratic Republic.”

The letter said the Soviet Government had taken into account the prompt way in which Eastern Germany so far has fulfilled her reparations obligations. The payment of the 3,171,000,000 dollars will be spread over 15 years, beginning in 1951 with goods from current production.