THE NATIONS: And So to Paris

After two weeks of vainly trying to settle the Berlin issue in Berlin, Germany's military governors passed the problem back to Moscow. For the eleventh time, the Western envoys went to call on Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov. The Russians had agreed "in principle" to lift the Berlin blockade; in practice, they refused to budge. It was obvious by now that the Russians were merely carrying on what T. S. Eliot once called "a tedious argument of insidious intent."

After the last Kremlin meeting, U.S. Ambassador Bedell Smith said: "The three Western envoys had a delightful hour and 30 minutes' talk...