"Benevolent Concession"

West Germany's Chancellor Konrad Adenauer came home a shaken man from Moscow in the fall of 1955. Under strong political pressure from his own people to reach agreement with the Kremlin, Adenauer bowed to Russia's demand for the establishment of diplomatic relations between Bonn and Moscow without waiting for German reunification. In exchange, he won release of 9,626 of the estimated 100.000 German prisoners then still held in Russia. Adenauer became chary of negotiating, even of trading, with the Soviets.

But with a foot in the door, the Russians next asked for a trade pact and consular agreement. Again under political pressure at home, Adenauer sent his bargainers back to the table. Last week in Moscow, after nine months of sparring, the Soviets and West Germans announced a new agreement. Once again the Soviets appeared to have got more than they gave.

Under the agreement, Soviet-West German trade will double within the next three years to some $300 million a year. In exchange for such Soviet goods as coal, cellulose, manganese and oil, the Germans bowed to the Soviet request for such useful (but officially "nonstrategic") West German products as mining and steel equipment, machine tools, heavy forges. The Soviets also won the right to establish a regular trade mission (estimated staff: 60) in Cologne, though the West Germans fended off Russian demands for consulates in major cities. The Soviet "concession" in exchange: a verbal promise to give "benevolent" consideration to the repatriation of all Germans (and their families) who held citizenship before June 22, 1941, the day Hitler invaded Russia. The German embassy in Moscow has 80,000 applications on file.

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