'IF ONE RAISES the question of Berlin in a pub,'
Peregrine Worsthorne tells the readers of the American Reporter in an article on 'Britain's lonely road towards the Summit,' almost without exception the reaction would be that the bloody Germans have caused two world wars and bloody well shouldn't be allowed to cause a third.' This may be the reaction in certain celebrated estab- lishments in Fleet Street; but it is not found else- where in Britain. That latent anti-German feeling exists is obvious, but it does not embrace Berlin; since the time of the air-lift, the feeling has grown even among people who have no interest in foreign affairs (more, in fact, than among those who have) that Berlin is a separate entity; and people here would be prepared to fight for it who would not care to lift a hand to defend West Germany. This, at least, is the ver- dict of a recent Gallup Poll, which showed that twice as many Britons (almost half the popula- tion) believe we should stay to defend Berlin even, at the risk of war. Sceptical though I have often been of these polls, I suspect they are more representative than opinions aired in EC4.
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