The Daily Alaska Empire

CRISIS OF BERLIN IS UP TO UN

Russian Blockade Is Condemned as Threat to World Peace

(By The Associated Press)

The United Nations squared off today for the most severe test in its three-year history—an attempt to settle the Berlin dispute.

On the assembly platform, France joined Britain and the United States in condemning the Russian blockade as a threat to world peace. Experts of the three Western Powers finished drafting the note to be sent to Secretary General Trygve Lie late today or tomorrow for reference to the Security Council.

Robert Schuman, French Foreign Minister, asked that the U. N. end the blockade because the three western powers have "exhausted every possibility of direct agreement." Although France is traditionally opposed to a rise of German power, he said "a renewed Germany must take her place in Democratic Europe."

Many diplomats feared the strain of the East-West dispute might crack up the United Nations.

British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin's speech was sharply criticized in the Soviet Press. Moscow newspapers charged he was trying to smash the United Nations. The Soviet newspapers did not say what Russia might do.

The London Daily Herald, however, quoted Andrei Y. Vishinsky, leader of the Soviet delegation, as saying the Soviets will not "abandon the United Nations."

"We shall stay on and work together with the other peoples of the world," Vishinsky was quoted as saying in an interview.

The U. S. Ambassador to Moscow, Walter Bedell Smith, conferred with President Truman on the President's campaign train, and told reporters later that American-Soviet relations were never more serious.