Unexpected Thanks

Last year, when President Eisenhower offered food to the hungry citizens of East Germany, his offer was rebuffed by Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov as "provocative and insulting" and "bait for agents." Undismayed, the President repeated the offer last month, after the disastrous floods in Central Europe (TIME, July 26). Last week he got a surprising answer. In a formal note, handed to U.S. High Commissioner James Conant, East German Premier Otto Grotewohl not only accepted the offer but thanked the President. Bewildered East Germans were informed of the U.S.'s "friendly gesture" in the Communist press and radio.

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