Evening star., 1949-08-21
By the Associated Press

| BERLlN, Aug. Iu.-oOVlCI Ouo
sia has throttled down her side OF
the cold war in Germany-but
Allied officials say they think it's
merely a lull.
Relations between the Western
powers and Russia eased after
the Soviet blockade of Berlin was
lifted last May. High Allied Off
GERS think the Russians called OIL
the siege for three reasons:
The Allied counterblockade,
which stopped shipments of ma
chine parts and other vital equip
ment to the Soviet zone, hurt the
Russians more than the blockade
hurt the Allies.
The airllft, stupendous under
taking which Russians doubted
could actually supply a city of
more than 100000, was a great
success.
Russian propaganda attempts
to lure West Berliners into the
Communist fold fell fiat.
Lifting of the blockade was a
shot in the arm to Berlin's indus
try and business, but German
leaders said they had not noticed
any new improvement tracable to
| the continued lesSening of East
West tension.
Tension Held No Less Now.
DR.. Walter Schneider, chairman
of the Berlin branch of the Chris
tian Democrat Union, which won
plurality in last Sundays West
German elections, said 1T is mere
irony to speak of a lessening of
tension in Berlin. We have not
noticed any signs of it. 1t is high
time something was done to unite
Berlin under a single city govern
ment."
Carl-Hubert Schwennicke chair
man of the strongly anti-Socialist
Free Democratic Party, took the
opposite view. He said, Russia
certainly is interested in reducing
the East-We rivalry in Berlin
because a political crisis here
would damage its already weak
position in all of Eastern Ger
many"
With the lifting of the blockade
the Western Allies noted a change
in the Russian attitude. The
Soviet-licenSed press slowly toned
down its attacks. Personal TRADES
against Allied officers Stacked off.
Russian officers began showing up
again at some semisocial func-
tions of the West.
Allied officials say the Russians
have almost restored the pre-
blockade status quo. Americans
report that the attitude of the
Russians at Potsdam, where an
American military mission is To-
Gated, is not unfriendly, but it
is still somewhat aloof.
Pictures Now Permitted.
Sector border incidents have
disappeared. Last fall, when feel
ing was at it's highest, Western
sector policemen were kidnapped
by Soviet-backed German police
almost daily. A high American
official was arrested at a sector
border point because he carried
a camera. Today the Russians
permit visitors to their sector to
take pictures of everything but
military installations.
The airlift, now being de-acti-
waited. is no longer heckled by
Soviet aerial activity in the air
corridors to Berlin. It was a COM
mon practice during the hard
days of the blockade. but both
Air Force officers and American
military government officers as
sert the Russian planes never
hampered the airlift.
"They annoyed some Of the
boys" said one officer, "but they
never so much as put tiny crimp
into the lift"
Potsdamer PlatZ in downtown
Berlin, once the hot corner in the
cold war, is quiet today. The
American, British and Russian
sectors meet there, but no longer
do squads of East German police
or Russian tommygunners patrol
the Soviet perimeter.
But American officials are
grimly skeptical.
Russian Change Held Ph0ny.
One top American officer, who
asked that he not be named, de-
clared:
"This Russian change is a
phony. It can be compared to
the sit-down phase of World War
H."
An American intelligence officer
commented:
"The Russians called for q
pause. Their fundamental con-
cepts have not changed. Their
objectives have not changed. They
are gathering their resources fol
another round"
No Allied official would predict
what new move the Russians
might make, but all were OF the
opinion that the blockade woulC
not be reimposed.
1T was a failure, they know
it was a failure<and they aren't
going to try it again." was tht
attitude.