WEST BERLIN
SIR,—In the article 'Bonn's-eye View' in your issue of July 10 Sarah Gainham states : 'East German leaders have already made public threats as to what they propose to do about West Berlin when the Russians have handed over to them.'
As an English journalist, living and working in East Berlin, it is part of my daily work to study the
various statements made by the statesmen of the German Democratic Republic. There have been many statements about West Berlin in recent months and their contents can be summarised as follows: (I) West Berlin should become a demilitarised free city. (2) The German Democratic Republic would be ready to guarantee, together with the Big Four and the United Nations, the inviolability of West Berlin under the social system chosen by its inhabitants and to guarantee free access to West Berlin from both East and West.
(3) East Germany would be willing to place large orders with West Berlin industry, thus guaran- teeing full employment and prosperity there. These proposals may be unacceptable to Western statesmen but it is difficult to describe them as threats. It would be very interesting if Sarah Gainham could give exact ,details of when and where East German leaders have made the 'public threats' to which she refers.—Yours faithfully,
Friedrichstrasse 1671111, Berlin, W8 •
[Sarah Gainham writes : *Mr. John .Pect should consult his files of News Deutschland. The Party newspaper reported a speech of Herr Ulbricht, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the SED (Socialist Unity, Party) on October 27,, 1958, in the Friedrichstatt Palast. Ulbricht is quoted as saying "Quemoy and West Berlin . . . form, similarly, parts of their countries illegally detached from the hinterland. Berlin is part of the territory of the Ger- man Democratic Republic. . . . Just hike [Quemoy] is West, Berlin, according to the ideas of her present masters. used as a constant trouble-maker against the DDR. Both positions have, however, not only similar tasks,.. they also have the same weakness.. Both of them are islands and must accept alIthe consequenceS of that situation."
'From the transcript of a radio discussion on the- Geneva Foreign Ministers' Conference on July 25, 1959, the same chief of the Communist Party, Herr Ulbricht, said, among other things, "We it is who demand guarantees that the propaganda and sabotage activities ,of militarist forces in West Berlin and West Germany shall be stopped. This cannot be post- poned. . . . If, in spite of all efforts, there is no .prospect of normalising conditions in West Berlin and of making a peace treaty, we ourselves, with the Soviet Union and all .nations who arc prepared to help will undertake the necessary measures of pacifi- cation in the interests of ensuring peace."
'Mr. Peet's summary of what the government of the DDR say for foreign consumption is quite correct. But the above quotations are the things they say for 'home consumption. Most of those who read in trans- lation the statements meant for their eyes cannot see and hear the much more candid statements of inten- tion made in East Berlin. Like all propagandists, Mr. Peet counts on that fact..---Editor„S peel(' for.]
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