Evening star., 1948-04-07
Berlin,
Continued From First Page.)

tween Berlin and the western zones
of Germany.
8. The Soviet licensed Berliner
Zeitung said If the Soviet military
government accepts negotiations on
traffic controls, sit is only to be
welcomed in the interest of de-
creased tension" but that Soviet
firmness on the fundamental ques-
ton remains unchanged.
The newspaper described as "a
bluff without success" the British
and American threats Monday to
use fighter escorts for transports
over Berlin. The order was with
drawn after the Russians assured
the British and Americans there
would be no interference with their
planes in the future.
A Russian investigation commits
sion charged that the Berlin plane
crash, in which the Soviet pilot and
all IA aboard the British plane were
killed, occurred when the liner
darted suddenly out of cloud and
hit the tail of the Russian Yak
fighter.
In London British Foreign Once
spokesman said "the facts as alleged
by the Soviet government are COM
pletely at variance with such evil
dence that We have amassed at the
moment"
(The official Soviet news agen-
cy Tass, in dispatches to the
Moscow press, implied the crash
was over a Soviet airport)
Crisis Eased but Little.
$ On the surface lit appeared last
nights dinner meeting between Field
Marshal Viscount Montgomery, chief
of the British imperial general staff,
and top Soviet officials in Berlin
accomplished little to ease the east
west crisis. Lord Montgomery, on
his return to London today. said
only that his talk with Soviet Mar
shall VASTLY D. ISokolovsky was
friendly.
The Russians have not yet set a
meeting date to talk over with the
western powers their Berlin traffic
restrictions. Military passenger
trains of the western Allies between
their zones and Berlin still are sus-
pended. Freight trains are moving
across the Soviet zone with supplies
for the western sectors of Berlin.
Some 10000 parcel post packages
mailed in Berlin have backed up at
the post office because the Russians
reduced the number of railway mail
cars provided for parcel post.
Moscow radios version of the
Berlin plane crash tailed with the
Russian investigation commission
report.
British Statement.
The official British statement said:
Moscow radio has put out the
story that the British Viking air.
craft came out of a low cloud and
collided with the Soviet fighter
about to land. The official British
view is that the true facts about
the collision cannot be established
until the enquiry has been COM
pleted. This much is know, however:
Visibility at the time of the
collision was some five miles. When
two miles from Gatow airfield the
Viking was sighted from the air
traffic control tower at Gatow air
field. Also the Viking had flown
from Hamburg down the corridor
towards Berlin at height of $500
feet with the clouds another 1,500
feet above it. The facts in them
selves show that the Soviet story
is palpably untrue"
A representative of British Euro
pean Airways, operators of the
transport, denied the crash oc-
CURED over a Soviet airport.
One British official said it was al
most impossible for the crash to
have occurred over a Russian air.
port, although two Russian fields
are very close to Britains Gatow
airfield. The British plane fell in
the Russian zone; the Russian plane
In the British zone Of Berlin.
Regulations Quoted
The Russian commission asserted
that under Control Council regula-
tions no allied plane is permitted
to approach closer than 2 miles to
the airport Of another nation or
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