Goodbye to Berlin
Trr HOSE of us who rely on the Guardian to provide sensible and detached comment on foreign affairs received a shock last week when it printed, as a leader-page article, 'A lasting answer for Berlin,' by Leonard Beaton. Mr. Beaton's thesis is that the Berlin problem could be solved by
I. An exchange of the territory but not the people) of West Berlin for a piece of Eastern Germany contiguous to Western Germany and now containing a comparable population.
2. The building in Western Germany of a new Berlin, financed by all the Western powers. The plan is so manifestly impracticable, not to say ludicrous, that it is not worth troubling to demolish it in detail; what is alarming is that a newspaper of the Guardian's standing should allow itself to be linked with a proposal which could only be interpreted (as it has been) in Germany as yet another sign that liberal opinion in the West is not to be trusted. Understandably, too, German commentators have drawn attention to the timing of its appearance--while Mr. Khrushchev was on his way to New York; for obviously nothing suits him better than signs of a weakening in the West on the one issue where in the past it has been consistently and effec- tively strong.
Nothing like this has been seen, in fact, since the notorious Times appeasement leader in Sep- tember, 1938. Admittedly the Guardian can claim that an article of this kind is not neces- sarily to be taken as a reflection of the news- paper's editorial views; and indeed in a back- pedalling leader on Monday it has argued that its object was 'simply to put a fresh idea into circulation.' This excuse would carry more weight if Mr. Beaton was a casual contributor: as he happens to be the Guardian's Defence Corre- spondent it is a little disingenuous (the views of the Guardian's Diplomatic Correspondent 01 the subject would be worth hearing: for hit newspaper to have given such prominence to Mr. Beaton's views on Berlin is roughly equivk lent, on so vital an issue, to Mr. Macmillan sending the Minister of Defence, rather than the Foreign Secretary, to represent the United Kingdom at the UN). And the leader went some way to support Mr. Beaton by arguing that 'no weak Western response to Russian pressure is involved in the plan.' But how else could the abandonment of Berlin be interpreted? Fo give up the German capital at any price would be destructive of the whole basis of Western policy--quite apart from the catastrophic effect it would have on German morale. Nobody is going to deny that 'a lasting solution of the German problem is necessary if Europe and the world are to have stability; but appeasement is not the solution. and to find the Guardian lending any support 10 it is disturbing.
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