940.5301/3–1651: Telegram
The Acting Director of the Berlin Element of HICOG ( Jones ) to the Office of the United States High Commissioner for Germany, at Frankfurt 1
1307. For ECA. Reference Bonn to Berlin 205, rptd info Frankfort 737, Dept 609, Paris 170, EuCom 31, London 164, Moscow 20.2 Commandants met 16 Mar in executive session to consider Sov Commandant’s reply of 15 Mar to Br ltr of 13 Mar concerning Sov interference inter-zonal waterways and Allied counter-measures.3
[Page 1833]Text of Dengin ltr follows:
“I acknowledge the receipt of your ltr dtd 13 Mar 1951.
The Sov representatives are prepared to meet appropriate Brit officials to discuss the question of navigation on inland waterways within the framework of New York agreement of May 1949.4 At the same time, it is expected that prior to the mtg the Brit authorities will restore the conditions for navigation, on Berlin waterways, which existed on 1 March 1948.”
Commandants agreed proposed reply substantially as follows:
“I acknowledge receipt of your ltr dated 15 March 1951. I am glad that you agree that our representatives shld meet to discuss the question of navigation on inland waterways within the framework of the New York agreement of May 1949.
As for your suggestion that the Brit authorities shld restore the conditions for navigation of Berlin waterways which existed on 1 March 1948, I wld remind you that it is the whole system of waterways between Berlin and the zones of occupation which are covered by the New York/Paris agreements of 1949. Accordingly, I feel bound to draw your attention again to the following navigational restrictions placed by the Sov authorities upon barge traffic between Berlin and Western Germany since 1 March 1948.
- (a)
- Interzonal permits to navigate and crew lists have been repeatedly held up by your transport officials for two months or more before being countersigned and returned to us. Thus, since the end of last year, on an average some 170 vessels have been prevented from taking part in inter-zonal navigation owing to lack of countersigned documents.
- (b)
- Documents valid at 1 March 1948 were valid until a date (31 Dec 1949) selected by the Brit authorities. Since the resumption of navigation in 1949, your Transport and Communications Division has unilaterally selected dates of expiry for these documents, which have been notified to us only at short notice and have normally covered only a very short period of validity. Recently, when the validity of these documents expired at the end of Jan 1951, we were not advised until the middle of Feb to what date they wld then be extended and this advice when received was that validity wld extend only until the end of Feb. The continued uncertainty as to the future validity of documents is in itself a restriction.
- (c)
- Before the 1 March 1948, alterations in crews were authorized unilaterally by the Allied authority of the zone of origin of the vessel concerned. Since the resumption of inter-zonal navigation in 1949, your Transport Division has insisted upon new crew lists being prepared to validate any alteration in personnel and has further insisted upon countersigning these new lists. Apart from the restriction upon navigation caused by delay in returning these lists, such a procedure, even if handled expeditiously, [Page 1834] must necessarily result in the exclusion from interzonal navigation, for a fortnight or more, of any vessel, in the crew of which there is any change. Since some crew lists have been presented to your Transport Division over the last 15 months, the interference with navigation is clearly serious.
- (d)
- Before the 1 March 1948, personal contacts between our transport representatives were frequent and took place without question on the request of either side. For the past year or more, the repeated efforts of my transport officials to meet and discuss mutual problems with yours have been unavailing.
Provided that you restore the conditions which obtained at 1 March 1948, i.e., when the outstanding documents have been countersigned and returned, their validity and the validity of all other documents have been extended until 31 December ‘51, and when the practice of unilateral amendment of crew lists is restored, then I shall be prepared to authorize the removal of the controls at present in force at the locks in the Brit sector of Berlin.
Such perliminary action on your part and on mine wld I hope produce an atmosphere in which useful discussions cld take place on a settlement of the whole problem of navigation on inland waterways in the spirit of the Paris agreement, according to which, taking the conditions prevailing on 1 March 1948 as a starting point, the movement of traffic to and from Berlin was to be facilitated. I hope you will agree that we shld take action simultaneously at a time and at a date to be agreed between us. I suggest noon Wednesday, March 21. Talks between our representatives cld then, I suggest, take place at Lancaster House at 11 a. m. on Thursday, March 22.
Alternatively, I am prepared to stand by my letter of 13 March and to authorize my representatives to hold discussions on the whole problem without any previous action being taken.”
Commandants agreed Brit commandant will submit proposed reply with possible minor drafting changes to Brit High Commissioner requesting authorization from HICOM Council to transmit this reply to Dengin.5
- Repeated to Washington, Moscow, London, Heidelberg, Paris for Jessup and to Bonn for Hays and Slater. The source text is the copy in the Department of State files.↩
-
Not printed; it transmitted as follows the text of Bourne’s reply of march to Dengin’s letter of the same day (see footnote 4, supra):
“In your letter of 7 March you raised question of stopping of barges proceeding through Spandau, Charlottenburg and Ploetzensee Locks. In view of certain difficulties which have arisen from application of administrative measures in areas under Soviet and British control to traffic by water to and from Berlin, I should be glad to know if you would be willing to join in early discussions of these problems which affect our mutual interests. My American and French colleagues associate themselves with this enquiry.” (962A.53/3–1251)
↩ - Not printed.↩
- For the text of the New York agreement of May 5, 1949, see the editorial note in Foreign Relations, 1949, vol. iii, p. 750.↩
-
On March 19 the U.S. Commandant for Berlin, Mathewson, reported that the text of the letter had been approved by the High Commissioners. Dengin replied to the letter as follows on March 20:
“I confirm receipt of your letter of 18 March 1951. Taking into consideration that the British authorities are willing to withdraw by 12 o’clock on 21 March all the restrictions introduced, despite the New York agreement of May 1, 1949, at the locks of the British sector in Berlin, and to restore the position existing on 1 March, 1948, the Soviet Control authorities on their part are willing to meet the British wish in regard to the unilateral issue of crew lists and the extension of the validity of documents for interzonal navigation up to 31 December, 1951.
I assume that the said agreement between us must be officially confirmed at the meeting of the Soviet and British representatives at 11 o’clock on 22 March, 1951 at the place suggested by you.”
The release of the barges by both sides was begun on the morning of March 22, and at the meeting between the British and Soviet officials minutes embodying the substance of the exchange of letters were agreed. Berlin reported on these events in telegrams 1173, 1176, 1180 and 1186, March 19, 20, 22, and 23 (940.5301/3–1951 through 3–2351).
↩