Railroading I

A Berlin-bound freight train puffed out of Frankfurt, loaded with meats and grains. The story of what happened to it is the story of zonal government in Germany.

Seven days later, the U.S. quarter master at Berlin asked the U.S. quarter master at Frankfurt why the train had not arrived. Frankfurt passed the query on to British headquarters at Lueneburg. Inch by slow inch, yards of red tape unwound. Five days later came the report: the train had passed promptly through the British zone.

Next the Russians were approached. Red Army transport men tracked the train to Magdeburg, where a German dispatcher had routed it to Leipzig instead of to Berlin. There it was unloaded and the freight warehoused.

The Russians asked Frankfurt to identify the freight. Then they reloaded it. On the 30th day after leaving Frankfurt, the train reached Berlin, some 250 miles away.

Zonal lines tripped Germany's life at every point. Occupiers and occupied were disgusted. Only the French insisted that zonal administration should not be modified until they had an answer on their proposal to internationalize the Ruhr; used their veto power in the Allied Control Council in Berlin to make their obstructionism stick.

Last week President Truman revealed U.S. official impatience by proposing an end of the one-power veto on the Control Council.

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