Western Powers Expected To Reject Russian Protest

Wanganui Chronicle, 4 October 1949, Page 5

Western Powers Expected To Reject Russian Protest

BERLIN, Oct. 3 (Reed. 12.55 am).— Diplomatic quarters in London feel the Western Powers will reject the latest Soviet protest against the formation of West German Government, says Reuter’s diplomatic correspondent. The diplomats said they considered that Russia’s denunciation of the Bonn Government as a breach of the 1945 Potsdam Agreement was a routine and expected reaction to events in Western Germany. Britain and the United States considered the need to develop Western Germany separately from the Soviet zone was forced upon them by a Soviet refusal to treat Germany as a single economic unit. Britain's view was that a reunion of Germany could be achieved at any time

by the Eastern zone’s adherence to the Bonn Constitution.

Observers in Berlin predicted that Russia's protest would be followed by the formation of an East German Government claiming to speak for the whole of Germany. The Soviet Note coincided with dozens of resolutions passed* at mass rallies throughout the Soviet zone during the week-end calling on the Soviet-sponsored People’s Council to take immediate steps to set up “a really democratic all-German Government” with its capital in Berlin. A People’s Council spokesman said tha council probably would meet this week to consider the steps to be taken.