Memorandum, State Department Summary of Telegrams

DEPARTMENT OF STATE OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY # WASHINGTON October 20, 1948 SUMMARY OF TELEGRAMS GERMANY In the opinion of our Acting Political Adviser in Berlin the imposition of new restrictive Soviet measures is significant not only for the tighter stranglehold they impose on the western sectors of Berlin but also because they indicate the utilization of increasing numbers of Soviet zone police in areas immediately adjacent to Berlin and close collaboration between the Soviet zonal and sector police. The arming of Soviet zone police is apparently being duplicated in the Soviet sector of Berlin, and our officials consider that the Soviets may now plan a merger of their zonal and Ber- lin sector police. The various American intelligence groups in Germany are all of the opinion that the recent report of the return to Berlin from the USSR of General Walter von Seydlitz accompanied by various other leading generals from the free German army in the Soviet Union are probably correct. They consider that this information has come from reliable sources, although nobody has yet actually seen von Seydlitz. DECLASSIFIED E.O. 12065, Sec. 3-402 State Dept. Guideline, June 12, 1979 I By NLT- HC NARS, Date 11-13-to