Senate Panel OKs Pact to End German Split

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday unanimously approved the treaty ending the post-World War II division of Germany and sent it to the full Senate.

The committee had hoped the Senate could act before the unification of West Germany and East Germany, but the Senate recessed for the evening without action.

The panel voted 19 to 0 in favor of the treaty, signed Sept. 12 in Moscow by Britain, France, the Soviet Union, the United States and East and West Germany.

After Senate approval, President Bush is to sign the treaty today, several hours after East and West Germany became one nation.

Members of the committee said that, even though they voted for the treaty, they still have reservations about a united Germany.

“Nothing should stand in the way of the treaty, but these sentiments need to be said, and we will have to watch Germany,” said Sen. Rudy Boschwitz (R-Minn.), who was born in Berlin and fled Nazi Germany at age 2.

Boschwitz noted Germany’s involvement in wars and the Holocaust.

Sen. Claiborne Pell (D-R.I.), committee chairman, said he shares Boschwitz’s thoughts.

“I agree with him that we should all keep our eye on how things progress in Germany,” said Pell, whose father, former Rep. Herbert C. Pell, helped prepare for the Nazi war crimes trials in Nuremberg after World War II.

The committee turned back an attempt by Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) to amend the treaty uniting the two Germanys with a statement reaffirming U.S. rejection of the Soviet Union’s annexation of the Baltic states.

Committee members agreed, however, to submit a parallel resolution saying the same thing rather than trying to put it in the treaty and delaying its ratification.

Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.) said he and other committee members had written the President on Friday expressing concern about any impact the treaty might have on the Baltic states.

He said the President is expected during the signing ceremonies today to say that nothing in the treaty alters the U.S. policy of rejecting the Soviet Union’s annexations.