6 Lillie Road, SW6 GERMAN PIPE-DREAMS SIR,-1 would like to
comment on the letter from Herr Kurtz about Berlin. The present Berlin problem, that is to say, the one existing since November, 1959, and sharpened since August 13, 1961, is not really Part of the post-war problem of Germany, but a quite artificial flurry, one of the results of which was a great increase of refugees through Berlin from East to West (under the threat of a separate peace treaty). This led to the Wall. This artificial situation, now an undoubted fact of international life, is part of the German problem, but it was not inherent in the Berlin problem or the German problem. And for thnse—this thought peeps through some of Hert Kurtz's premises--who say that the East Germans Were forced to build a wall, to prevent their economy suffering further from the flood of workers leaving their homes, I should like to point out that if a government makes the lives •of its people such a misery that they are prepared to walk off with what they stand up in by the thcusand• it ought not to be sympathised with because its economy is endangered by its own stringencies. It is not true that free and democratic elections on both sides of the Elbe have never been proposed. They have been suggested on so many occasions, that even if my books were not packed for removal, it Would be tedious to list them. Free and democratic ejections were the basis for years of the attitude of the West in general and of the Federal German Government to talks on reunification with 'the other _ It is very likely, if not certain, that free elec- tions in East Germany would show a majority against the Ulbricht Government and the Communist Party and would record a desire for unification with West Germany; although, as was clear during the Hungarian rebelliqn, many voters would wish to retain some of the characteristics of socialism. If this litrying to I 3s uu subject one part of Germany to the other e 'so-called free elections' and fifty-two millions (in Ft it is fifty-four millions) outvoting seventeen millions then it would not be the forcible over- lierr Kurtz fears, but the fundamental democratic owering of one side of Germany by the other, as Process of the majority will being the winner. Of course such a proposal has no chance of acceptance ,..Y. anyone in power in the East; such a course is ,,sti"vite unrealistic. The Russians will never willingly give uP their grasp on the heavy industry and raw ii'ideiterrials of East Germany. One may agree with
to attitude or not, but in either case it is important see it clearly,
_olwo free German States would almost certainly trribine, and the question of Berlin would thus stteaPPear, but a free city or any other solution by Tmeans is a pipe-dream. And anyone who believes ra:b the withdrawal of foreign troops from Europe Wo.rrk, the Atlantic Ocean as far as to the Urals' make for peace is either an innocent of ,ro ,re novere, or has ulterior motives in suggest- ', ee ott• Supposing that everybody behaved honestly, With old leave the American forces on the east coast ef ne,United States and the Russians on the borders forc'enitand and Hungary. The Red Army is now a It larger than all other forces in Europe combined. dere: d then be of such overwhelming prepon- e---since the Americans would then need long-
range rockets for the deterrent—that any question of freedom in Europe would be academic.
Bad Godesbergl Rh, Germany
SARAH GAINHAM
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