862.00/12–3149: Telegram
The Acting United States Political Adviser for Germany (Babcock) to the Secretary of State
Unnumbered. Following is Berlin’s 329 December 21 to Frankfort, repeated to you unnumbered for information:
“Following is text of letter from General Kotikov to General Taylor dated December 19, subject: Berlin Railway situation. This letter is Soviet reply to Western commandants letter to Kotikov November 21 (Berlin telegram 259, November 211).
Dear General: Your letter of 21 November 1949 does nothing to affect the opinion, previously expressed by me, that a unilateral decision of the three Western commandants to suspend the discussion of questions pertaining the normalization of life in Berlin is not equitable, is in contradiction with the decision of the Council of Foreign Ministers in Paris and constitutes a violation, on your part, of the best interests of the Berlin population.
[Page 435]The reference, contained in your letter, to the effect that the Council of Foreign Ministers in Paris, in adopting the decision to confer about the normalization of life in Berlin, had primarily in mind the then existing situation on the railway in the Western sectors of Berlin, corresponds neither to the text of the decision, to which you refer, nor to the actual progress of the negotiations about the Berlin question at the meeting of the Council of Ministers, as may be seen from the stenographic account of the respective meetings. It is therefore difficult to regard your letter, 21 November 1949, except as an attempt to justify, by means of an after-thought the breakdown produced by you, of the four powers consultative conference on the normalization of life in Berlin. Thus, I can only repeat that the responsibility for the breakdown rests wholly and exclusively on the commandants of the city’s Western sectors who, without any justification, are now posing in the unbecoming role of representatives of the railway employees.
As regards your statement that the administration of the Berlin railways is allegedly violating an agreement with regard to the payment wages in Western marks to railway workers in the Westtern sectors, it is contrary to the facts; the administration of the railways is paying out regularly 60 percent of the wages, as fixed in the agreement, to those railway employees who reside and work in the Western sectors of Berlin. As already reported to you, in a letter of 2 August 1949,2 by the Deputy Chief of the Transportation Office (SMAG), the negotiations which had taken place between the chief administration of the German railways, in the Soviet zone, and the railwaymen’s union pertained only to workers and employees who were residing and working in the Western sectors of Berlin, and that the agreement does not provide for the payment of 60 percent of the wages and for maintenance of railway employees residing in the city’s Western sectors but working in the Eastern sectors.
And it stands to reason that it is so, as the administration of the Berlin railways could not agree to extend the application of the aforesaid agreement also to those railway, employees who, while residing in the Western sectors, are employed in the Eastern sectors of Berlin, owing to the fact that Western mark revenues, received by the administration of Berlin’s city railway, are insufficient for the payment of 60 percent of wages and maintenance in Western marks even to those railway employees who reside and work in the city’s Western sectors. Thus, for example, the income of Berlin’s city railways during November 1949 amounted to 1,834.000 in Western marks, while the average monthly wage bill to railwaymen, residing and working in the city’s Western sectors, amounts to 1,878,000 Western marks.
[Page 436]Therefore, the acceptance of your proposals, which are not stipulated in the agreement, would lead to disorganization in the economic operations of Berlin’s railways.
I must also reject your statement that the Berlin administration of the railways is allegedly instituting repressive measures in the case of former strike participants by dismissing them or having them transferred to other work.
Such statements are without any foundation, since individual transfers of railway employees are undertaken in the normal and customary course of administrative operation and in accordance with a procedure which has been in existence even prior to the aforementioned events.
At the same time, I am compelled to draw your attention to the unlawful instructions, by the commandants in the Western sectors of Berlin, prohibiting the transfer of railway stock, materials and spare parts from railway stations in the city’s Western sectors to those in the Soviet sector, and ordering, also, the confiscation of homes and attachment of rentals, which the railway administration is receiving from the lease of premises for the operation snackbars, restaurants, newspaper booths, etc. Such measures are interfering with the normal operation of the railways by the administration.
If, nevertheless, you are not clear on some of the practical aspects pertaining to the operation of the Berlin railway center, General Kvashnin, I am informed, is prepared at any time to receive your representatives for further discussions of the questions involved.
Letters of identical content have been forwarded by me to Major General Bourne and Division General Ganeval.
Sincerely, A. Kotikov.”