The Tension Heightens

Each after its own fashion. East and West Germany last week observed the seventh anniversary of Nazi Germany's surrender to the armies of Russia and the West. In a sleepy Rhineland village, John J. McCloy, U.S. High Commissioner for Germany, spoke up for the West. Germany and the allies, he said, "are taking three great steps at the same time: we are liquidating a war, we are making a peace and we are concluding a great alliance."

Peacemaking day was set for May 20; the Russians apparently hoped to make it peacewrecking day. The tingle of tension heightened between East & West. The weapons were border incidents, propa ganda exchanges and diplomatic notes. Among them:

Special Delivery. The West decided how to answer the Soviet offer of "free" all-German elections: ask sharp questions to unmask the insincerity of the Russian proposals. How free would elections be? Would the Reds release political prisoners, restore civil rights, allow anti-Communist parties to organize and campaign? Would a free and united Germany, Russian-style, be free to join such Western alliances as the Schuman coal & steel plan and the European Army? Before committing itself to Big Four talks, said McCloy, the West "wants firm evidence, firm facts. We have all suffered too much --Germans included--to jeopardize the progress we have made."

R.S.V.P. Just to show how futile it can be to try to talk things over with the Russians, the West brought up the Austrian peace treaty again. West and East had already met 258 times to work out a settlement; each time Soviet demands for more war booty had hamstrung negotiations. Last week the U.S., France and Britain repeated an unanswered U.S. suggestion for an "abbreviated peace treaty" which would recognize Austrian independence but forbid Anschluss (i.e., union) with Germany. This time, the West said firmly, it expected a reply.

Blackmail. The East's response was not pen notes but pinpricks. The incidents were small: e.g., West Germans were refused interzone passes to Berlin because "American imperialists are trying to split Germany"; British and U.S. patrols were temporarily barred from the no-mile stretch of Autobahn linking Berlin to West Germany. But each pinprick seemed to fit into an ominous Soviet stencil. The Reds were giving West Germans a glimpse of what might happen if they turn down the Soviet offer of "unity." Huffed Walter Ulbricht, East German Deputy Premier: "The day the peace contract is signed, West Berlin will learn its consequences."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.