NEWS OF THE WEEK
y HE administration of Berlin has become one important testing-
is;sue which proved the first stumbling-block was the feeding of Berlin. Should the city's food supply come from each zone of occupation to each section of Berlin separately, or should it all come from the surrounding countryside, which is all in Russian control? It has fortunately been agreed to replace separate administration by .: collective authority, the inter-Allied Kommanclantur, on which France is also to be represented. Administering the city under the Allied Control Council for Germany, this body will supervise all branches of Berlin's local government and all food supplies. Each of the four military commandants will serve in rotation, every fifteen days, as chief commandant. This joint arrangement is an advance on partition, though the short cycle of a fortnight is likely to impede vfficiency, and is itself a sign of Allied difficulties in co-operation. It is not merely that efficient joint administration of the German capital is essential on grounds of humanity and self-interest, if I amine and disease arc to be prevented from spreading amid the ruins and rubble: it is also that differences of method and approach, natural to countries so varied in structure and outlook as the four .. major Allies, and mere chance differences of circumstance, such as
he greater resources of food which happen to be available in the Soviet-occupied areas, might lead to serious misunderstanding and misinterpretation. It is highly desirable that there should exist machinery for regular consultation between the Allies at lower levels iha.n that of the Control Council, and—still more—that there should he this practical and day-to-day opportunity to tackle together con- crete problems whose solution is a real common interest.
