Evening star., 1948-04-01
Berlin
Continued From First Page.)

port in Berline will serve as a tenn.
porary stopgap.
Gen. Clay said the Russian stop.
page of train traffic could not bt
broken Immediately without force
Berlin is an island OF four-powel
control deep nthe Soviet zone. i
fis more than 100 miles by rail ol
road from the nearest border poini
in the British zone, and farther
from the American and French
! zones.
The British asked the Russians
for immediate discussions If the
issue leads to a meeting of the
four military governors, it will be
the first session since the break
down of four-power administration
caused by the Russians walkout on
the March 20 meeting of the Con-
troll Council.
Order Aimed at Freight.
The Russian order seemed di-
rected principally at freight. In
their checks of motor transport
passenger automobiles were passed
perfunctorily, but truck cargoes were
inspected closely.
This recalled the recent Com
munist propaganda line in Germany
that great quantities of machines
and equipment were being spirited
out of the Soviet sector into the
other sectors of the city and zones
of occupation. The western au-
thorities say this claim is greatly
Exaggerated.
1t. Gen. Curtis E. LeMay's Air
Force headquarters at Wiesbader
said it was hoped to put into opera.
tion all planes necessary to move
the normal number of train pas.
sengers and keep the more thar
10000 Americans in Berlin supplied
with food.
Royal Air Force headquarters II
Hamburg said no plans were being
made there to supply the British
population of Berlin by air.
A British official in Hambur,
noted that there has been a marked
increase in the strength of Russian
control forces facing the British
zone in the past 48 hours. He saie
the flow of illegal refugees from th'
Russian to the British zone wa
unusually small today, adding h
did not think many people care t.
cross the frontier under presen
circumstances"
A similar situation appeared tt
be developing in Austria. A Vienns
dispatch said Russian troops are re
ported Tightening their restriction.
on Americans entering the Russian
zone en- route to Vienna. which, lik'
Berlin, is under four power con.
! troll. The report was attributed tt
travellers.
j Gen. Clay conferred with hi;
British counterpart, 1t. Gen. Sil
Brian Robertson, on the Russian
move, which was sprung on Chs
western powers with less than q
hours notice.
Soviet Reply Awaited.
The position of the Western
powers was one of waiting for re-
plies from the Russians to theil
protest notes. These notes, de-
livered last night, rejected the Rus.
sian measures as unacceptable ant
a violation of Allied agreements.
! The Russians demanded yesterda,
that, starting at midnight, all pas
sengers and freight entering theil
zone submit to inspection at th,
border control points.
British and American authoritie.
ordered their train commanders mo-
to yield to this demand.
American officials said the French
have indicated they will stand with
the United States and Britain in op-
position to the Soviet restrictions.
The French permitted their in
coming train from Paris to submit
to Soviet border inspection today
but this was believed due to the fact
that orders had not yet gone out to
train commanders to refuse Soviet
attempts to come aboard.
Highway Restricted.
The Russians this morning also
began to place restrictions on the