740.00119 Control (Germany)/5–2346
Minutes of the Fifty-Fifth Meeting of the Coordinating Committee
CORC/M(46)26
| There Were Present:40 | Lieutenant General Robertson (Chairman) |
| Lieutenant General Koeltz | |
| Lieutenant General Dratvin | |
| Lieutenant General Clay | |
| Also Present: | Great Britain |
| Mr. Steel | |
| Major General Erskine | |
| Sir Percy Mills | |
| Soviet Union | |
| Minister Semenov | |
| Counsellor Kudriavtsev | |
| France | |
| Consul General Tisseau | |
| Major General Noiret | |
| Brigadier General Bapst | |
| United States | |
| Ambassador Murphy | |
| Major General Adcock | |
| Secretariat | |
| Brigadier Grazebrook | |
| Consul General Baudier | |
| Major Kudriavtsev | |
| Colonel Gerhardt |
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
[Page 763]297. Report on Extension of Existing Air Corridors in Germany
The Meeting considered CORC/P(46) 177.41
The Chairman drew the attention of the Meeting to the fact that the recommendations contained in the paper started with the words “By a majority vote”. This was unusual in the light of agreed procedure and it should be recorded that the paper should not have been submitted by the Directorate in this form.
General Dratvin agreed with these remarks and further stated that the Soviet Delegation withdrew the wording given at the Air Directorate by the Soviet representative.42
General Robertson said that the paper covered two points. The first, practical, was whether there should be an extension of existing air corridors. The second question, a rather wider one of principle, was whether the Control Council has authority in matters of civil aviation.
General Dratvin declared that the Soviet authorities had already provided the Allied Occupying Powers with sufficient air corridors. As to air service to other countries, in his opinion, this should be referred to the Governments as it was a subject beyond the competence of the Control Authority, and he therefore proposed withdrawing the paper from the agenda.
General Robertson stated that although in the opinion of the Soviet Delegation sufficient facilities for flights over Germany had been provided, the facilities were not sufficient in the opinion of the Occupying Power which he represented, and he was puzzled to know why there should be a disinclination to provide facilities which were considered necessary and advisable.
As regards the second point General Robertson did not understand how General Dratvin reconciled the view that civil aviation was beyond the competence of the Allied Control Authority, with the principles of the Berlin Protocol by which supreme authority in Germany was exercised by the Zone Commanders on instructions received from their respective governments.43
[Page 764]General Clay and General Koeltz agreed entirely with General Robertson, but in view of the position of the Soviet Delegate
The Meeting
(297) withdrew the paper
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
[For text of Flight Rules by the Air Directorate of the Allied Control Authority for Aircraft Flying in Air Corridors in Germany and Berlin Control Zone, October 22, 1946, see Documents on Germany, 1944–1961: Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, 87th Cong., 1st sess. (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1961). pages 63–72.]
- The four members of the Coordinating Committee were Deputy Military Governors of the British, French, Soviet, and U.S. Zones, respectively.↩
- Supra.↩
- For text of an extract from the minutes of the 29th meeting of the Air Directorate, April 30, 1946, concerning air corridors, see Documents on Germany, 1944–1961: Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, 87th Cong., 1st sess. (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1961), p. 54.↩
- See section II, paragraph 1 of the Protocol of the Potsdam Conference, August 1, 1945, Foreign Relations, The Conference of Berlin (The Potsdam Conference), 1945, vol. ii, p. 1481.↩