Editorial Note
On February 10 the Information Office of the Soviet Military Administration issued an official statement regarding the decision of the Bonn Parliamentary Council to integrate Berlin as a twelfth Land in the West German state, which said inter alia:
“… that this decision, in the opinion of the Soviet command, constitutes only another proof of the adventurous policy of the ‘Parliamentary Council’ at Bonn, a policy not to be taken seriously; by means of such provocative tricks that Council is trying to divert the attention of the German population from the fact that the Western occupation authorities are following a policy of splitting Germany, that a West-German separate state is being established, that the Ruhr area is being severed from Germany, that arrangements for peace with Germany are being undermined and that the occupation regime is being prolonged for an indefinite time.”
Riddleberger reported the text of the statement in telegram 227, February 11, from Berlin, not printed, and noted that this was the first official Soviet recognition of the Parliamentary Council’s decision regarding Berlin (740.00119 Control (Germany)/2–1149). The full text of the statement, as printed in Taegliche Rundschau, February 11, is printed in Berlin: Quellen and Dokumente, Hlbd. 2, page 2036.