22 OCTOBER 1948, Page 1

NEWS OF THE WEEK

' HE three Western Powers having once referred the Berlin dispute

to the Security Council, it was no doubt inevitable that the six so-called neutral Powers, who are members of the Council but not parties in the dispute, should go through the same barren process of fact-finding and abortive negotiation as the Western Powers have gone through so many times already. It is probable that they too will find themselves in the end exactly where they started. Such incidents as Dr. Bramuglia's attempt to get Mr. Vyshinsky to answer questions, and Mr. Vyshinsky's attempt to give the impression of being both present and absent at the same time, no doubt break the monotony a little. But it is a hopeless process, and there is no point in prolonging it much further. Nothing changes So long as discussion is confined to Berlin. Meanwhile the impasse is intensified and the fundamental balance of forces is not upset. The sabotage of German local government has been carried a step further by the refusal of the head of the labour depart- ment to obey the orders of the Magistrat ; Russian shelling grows more frequent in the air corridor, accompanied by the usual pro- tests and denials ; the organisation of the air lift has been further improved by a combination of the operational command of the British and American forces ; German rations in West Berlin are to be raised ; and there is an ominous growth in the numbers of the so-called " people's police " in the Russian zone. Only the last move, which raises dangerous possibilities of armed aggression under the disguise of a local German dispute, is really new ; and still it does not bring the question to a head. There is no reason why the Berlin treadmill should not continue to revolve for months and years. Surely it should be plain by now that there is no possibility of settlement between Russia and the West so long as the field of discussion is limited to this one barren point.