RUSSIA WANTS WESTERN ALLIES OUT OF GERMANY

Wanganui Chronicle, 2 November 1948, Page 5

RUSSIA WANTS WESTERN ALLIES OUT OF GERMANY

(N.Z.P.A. —Special—Copyright.)

BERLIN, Oct. 31.—The Russians have launched a new propaganda campaign aimed at stirring up German public opinion to demand the withdrawal of the Western Allies not only from Berlin but from all Germany, an Associated Press correspondent.

The Russians used the Communist German People’s Council to issue a declaration demanding the conclusion of a peace treaty with an all-German Government, to be followed within a year by the withdrawal of all the occupation forces.

The campaign was accompanied by claims in the Russian-controlled Press that Mr. Stalin’s attack on the Western Powers over the Berlin deadlock had caused confusion in the Western bloc.

The Western authorities in Berlin consider that the Soviet campaign is an attempt to popularise the Russian proposal made several months ago at the Warsaw conference of the Eastern Foreign Ministers that all four occupying forces should withdraw. This plan, according to official samplings of German opinion by the Americans, had encountered wide distrust in German minds. Much as the Germans would like fto have the country back for themselves, many fear that if the Western Powers withdraw the Communists will take over with the aid of their armed “people’s police.”