PAGE SIX
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN, LAWRENCE, KANSAS
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27, 1949
The Editorial Page-
Blockade Lifting
The Soviet Union's offer to lift the Berlin blockade is a major victory for the Western powers. According to rumors, Russia had been planning such a move for several weeks—if they could gain some concessions from the other three occupation forces.
They want to meet with representatives of France, England, and the United States to talk over the currency problem. Russia has long advocated a single currency for the area. The Western forces are agreeable to the meeting, but they also want to discuss the establishment of a single administration for Berlin.
Until recently, Russia has refused to discuss such a program. Now it appears that they may be willing to listen. They apparently realize that the air lift has practically defeated the blockade. They want to act while they still have some bargaining power behind them. Every day the air lift operates, that bargaining power slips. They have failed to discredit the Western powers. In fact, their blockade has increased the prestige of the other occupation powers.
It's a case of getting hit in the face with their own fist. Their "get tough" policy has backfired.
Let's hope that something constructive comes out of the meeting, if it is held. All four countries should have learned by now that a policy of stubbornness solves nothing. France, Germany, and the United States should not cater to the Russians in order to get the blockade lifted; they are in a position where they don't have to do that. But neither should they get too tough and unyielding in their demands on Russia.
Now is the time for teamwork. Now is the time to prove there is hope for the world.
Fluorescent Lamp Dangers
New York City health officials have issued a warning against the dangers of handling burned-out fluorescent lamps.
The tubes are said to be coated on the inside with a phosphor which usually contains beryllium, a toxic substance. Skin cuts from the broken tubes can cause a condition known as granuloma, a benign skin tumor. Inhaling the dust from these broken tubes is also dangerous, they said.
Students at the University are constantly subjected to fluorescent lamps in their class rooms, in libraries, and in their homes. When they handle burned-out tubes, they should remember that a broken tube is dangerous.
To eliminate as much danger as possible, the New York City health officials have adopted a list of precautions for disposing of burned-out tubes.
1. Keep discarded tubes away from children.
2. Never break tubes or place tubes in incinerator or open containers in the street.
tainers in the street.
3. Deliver tubes directly to refuse trucks.
4. Should a tube be broken, sweep up the fragments and wrap them in heavy paper. Never handle broken fragments without gloves.
5. If cut by a broken tube, consult a doctor at one
5. If cut by a broken tube, consult a doctor at once.
Ann Albright
No Veterans' Requisitions Honored After May 2
Ann Albright.
Veterans' requisition books for equipment and supplies will not be honored after Monday, May 2, E. R. Elbel, director of the Veterans bureau, announced today.
Supplies are cut off every year to allow book stores time to finish the paper work and bill the Veterans administration, Dr. Elbel said.
Exceptions may be made if veterans are doing graduate work and working on theses and could not get required materials sooner, he continued.
University
Daily Hansan
Student Newspaper of the UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
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A meeting of the Lawrence city council Monday night revealed that 12 catch-basins in the city have been repaired.
City engineers made a survey of the wells in Lawrence and the repairs have been made to prevent any accidents. The survey and repairs were made as a result of the news of the death of Kathy Fiscus, 4-year-old girl of San Marino, Calif.
Lawrence Officers Secure 12 Catch-Basins In City
German Students Think Of United Germany, War, Food
(Berlin Correspondent for the University Daily Kansan)
Bv CARLA EDDY
(Berlin Correspondent for the University)
A K.U. student wrote me the following questions. He thought the answers would be of general interest to K.U. students. I think not, because University of Kansas students could hardly be as concerned with what becomes of Germany as Berlin students whose every calorie flies in on the conqueror's wings.
These answers come from seven university students in Berlin, women and men, vets and non-vets, single and married; students of language, economics, education. They tried to give not their own views, but the typical Berlin answer to "what the Germans think."
Q. What kind of Germany do the Germans want?
A. A united Germany, with a government of its own and without foreign supervision. No international control of the Ruhr, unless other Western European industry is also internationalized. They want the Eastern parts of Germany back—Pomerania and Silesia.
Q. —or do they have visions?
A. They don't think far ahead. The distant future depends a great deal on what happens now, and Germans feel helpless in determining their future. They feel it all depends on the powers that occupy their country, and over which they have no control whatever.
Q. What kind of a Germany do the Germans think they'll actually get?
A. A divided Germany, with an Eastern government controlled by the Soviets and a Western government "supervised" by the Western occupation powers. The Eastern part would become one of the Eastern bloc of nations, and the Western part would become one of the Atlantic pact countries. Berlin's place in this picture they would rather not contemplate.
A. If conditions were more peaceful, it might be looked on as an armistice. Certainly not as the beginning of lasting peace. War rumors have diminished somewhat since last year, but those who are improving economically fear war and speculate about it because it is the main fact that could ruin their progress. Others seem to want war.
Q. Do Berliners see these years as the beginning of a permanent peace, or only as an armistice?
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Q. What part would the German people play if war came, an active or pacifistic part?
feeling that only another upheaval could right some present wrongs, or that somehow it might return conditions to better days. This is especially true of those who have had to leave or relinquish their homes and property.
A. As a whole, they would rather not take an active part. They think it is a shame that the great powers fight out their differences on German territory, whether the war is hot or cold. They assume that Germans in the East would be forced to fight against the West. Those in the West would also fight, not so much with the Western powers as against Soviet communism.
Q. What commodities does the housewife want most for her family?
A. The unanimous first response is food. What kind? Fresh potatoes (what the West Berliners receive now are dehydrated); eggs (are never on ration cards, and are very expensive on the black market); milk (children over 2 years of age usually lack fresh milk, adults get none); meat (fish or powdered egg constitute a third of the meat ration, bones are weighed in the 65 daily grams of fresh meat when it appears, when canned meat is distributed one receives only 70 per cent of the
amount on the face of the ration tikrits, he gives up).
tickets he provides.
A decided second need mental aid was clothing. What kind? First and foremost, shoes; then all kinds. The students mentioned stockings, underclothing, men's shirts.
The third great need is fuel. Everyone misses central heating and automatic hot water; its absence makes living more like camping out all winter.
Today and Thursday
J. ARTHUR RANK who gave you "GREAT EXPECTATIONS" presents CHARLES DICKENS' masterpiece
RED'S THE "FULLER BRUSH MAN" NOW
ALEXIS SMITH ● SIDNEY GREENSTREET
'THE WOMAN IN WHITE''
12-39c
TO-DAY
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JANE WYMAN
''JOHNNY BELINDA''