Editorial Note
On January 14, 1949, the Technical Committee reconvened at Geneva. During this stage of its proceedings the Committee held forty-two meetings, twenty-five of which were with the experts of one or several of the Occupying Powers. At the first meeting the Soviet expert presented his suggested amendments to the Committee’s draft recommendations. On the 15th and 16th of January the Western experts submitted their replies to the Committee’s report. The United States reply was embodied in three papers. The first contained a general criticism of the Committee’s work, concluding that it did not provide the basis for settlement of the Berlin currency and trade question; the second paper was a detailed technical analysis of the Committee’s report; while the third paper gave the United States counterproposal, in which it was suggested that the Committee give consideration to a modus vivendi as described under these headings: the supply of East Mark currency to Western Berlin, external trade and payments for Western Berlin, and municipal budget. The United Kingdom and France presented two statements each: general observations on the Committee’s report in which they also expressed sympathy for the United States counterproposal, and detailed amendments to the report. The full text of all these papers was published in United Nations Press Release SC/908, March 15, 1948; a copy of this release is in file 740.00119 Control (Germany)/3–1549. The three United States papers are also printed in Department of State, Documents and State Papers, May 1949, pages 772–779, and in Germany 1947–1949, pages 257–268. A copy of the Russian expert’s statement on January 14 is also printed in Sovetskii Soiuz i berlinskii vopros (dokumenty), vypusk vtoroi, Moscow, 1949, pages 70–80.