The Key West Citizen

WILL RUSSIA END BLOCKADE?
There are rumors that the Russians may lift the Berlin blockade but, before this happens, it is important to remember that the blockade does not constitute Soviet policy toward Germany, but represents an effort to advance the policy.
What Russia seeks in Germany is the control of that country. The blockade was instituted in the belief that it would mean the complete control of Berlin and, through the capital, the rest of Germany.
Most of the newspaper observers in Germany today are agreed that Communism has made little progress among the masses of the German people. Consequently, the Russians are said to be facing the fact that the effort to control Germany through a Communist Party has been a failure. Inasmuch as the desire for control continues to exist, the Russians may be expected to attempt to accomplish their purpose by other methods.
The ten-months' siege of Berlin has produced the airlift, which places the Anglo-American nations in the position of helping the residents of the capital. There is a flow of American dollars into Western Germany which contrasts strangely with the reparations that the Soviet takes from Eastern Germany. Consequently, there is much hostility to any rapprochement with the Russians and such a development seems to be improbable unless the blockade is removed.
If this happens, some observers believe that the Russians may make an effort to deal with German industrialists, aristocratic diplomats and Army officers, which groups, in the past have exercised considerable power. This line of thinking is encouraged by the fact that there has always been a school of professional German diplomats to follow the old Bismarck doctrine of "keeping the line open to St. Petersburg." These diplomats cling to the past in the belief that Germany's greatness was found in German-Russian rapprochement, the doctrine of