September 7, 1959
WILLY BRANDT: Berlin – The Mayor of West Berlin, Willy Brandt, addressed Parliament today about raising the city’s problem at the Geneva talks, saying «it would be better not to reach an agreement than to have an unsatisfactory one.» He said that any attempt to separate Berlin from the entire German question and achieve a separate solution was destined to fail. «It is quite clear to us,» said Brandt, «that the Russian government will not give up its goal of turning West Berlin into what it calls a free city and gradually annex it to the area under its control.» Commenting on Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev’s recent article in an American magazine, he said the Russian leader was simply reiterating old Russian proposals and that Russia had always been and always would be a threat. Brandt expressed the hope that the forthcoming meeting between Khrushchev and US President Dwight D. Eisenhower might work toward eliminating part of the Russian threat. DASSIN-MELINA: The monetary committee has approved the grant of a loan to Melina Mercouri for the production of a film in Greece, to be directed by Jules Dassin.
