The New Berlin Blockade
The central and essential condition of the New York agreement which led to the meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers in Paris was the lifting by the Russians of the Berlin blockade. That condition has never been properly observed. From the very start the Russians have maintained restrictions here and there, which have served both as irritants and as plain evidence that they did not intend to regard the blockade episode as closed. Worse still, from the point of view of the maintenance of traffic, has been the strike on the Berlin railways. The demands of the railwaymen in the Western sectors for payment in Western marks, reinstatement of their members and recognition for their union would certainly not be regarded as unreasonable in any country in which the word " democracy " retained its normal meaning. But the Russian atti- tude has been obstructive throughout, and Russian action has included the use of hired hooligans in the attempt to break the strike. It still is not broken. What is more, as the economic adviser to the United States Military Government has pointed out, no attempt has been made by the Reichsbahn in the Soviet zone, which of course operates under Russian supervision, to use alternative routes into Berlin. This point is important. It can only mean that the Russians are deliberately using the strike as an indirect way of re-imposing the blockade. Only the air routes are fully and effectively open, and the trains are piling up in the familiar manner in Western Germany. Sooner or later, if this goes on, the issue must be transferred to Paris, for it is difficult to see how the Council can go on ignoring the fact that the condition on which it met is being deliberately frustrated.
