Evening star., 1951-11-18
SnnuggIing-,
Tricks Supply Reds
With Scarce Goods
By Joachim Joesten

by JooCnim JoeSten
MUNICH-"There are still upright
men in Western Germany who will
trade with us in the teeth of Amer
ican displeasure." The man who
boasted thus. the other day, was
Joseph Orlopp, head of the East
German regimes interzonal trade
section. And he added, with a great
show Of ludicrous Indignation; IF
the Bonn puppet government calls
this trade illegal, say that is an
unwarranted defamation of honest
businessmen. In our eyes these are
brave people who have German unity
at heart"
West German Minister of Econom-
les Ludwig Erhard gave the answer:
''To my mind. man who continues
to engage in illicit dealings with the
Soviet zone is neither businessman
nor an industrialist, but just plain,
ordinary criminal"
Unperturbed by this war of words,
the great economic battle between
East and West goes on day after day.
month after month. So far, the ruth
less. determined and splendidly
organized forces of the Kremlin ap-
pear to have the edge. Only few
days ago. Western intelligence sources
in Vienna reported continued flow
to the Soviet orbit of scarce metals
and strategic materials worth hun
dred of millions of dollars. This. after
repeated assurances by all concerned
that the backbone of West-East
smuggling had been broken.
Too Little Progress
To be sure. some progress has been
made in the American-sponsored
campaign to halt the shipment of
West German steel and other stra-
tegic goods to the Eastern zone.
Control measures along the 850-mile
boundary separating the two Ger
mariieS have been strengthened. In
spection Of cargo manifeSts and bills
Of lading now is considerably less
perfunctory than it used to be. The
mo objection" stamp for an intended
shipment from North German port
Is no longer as easy to obtain as
before.
But the ways of the modern snug
gler are varied and wonderful. and
there seems to be no limit to his
ingenuity-especially if. as is the case
with most interzonal contraband, he
is backed up by one government in
his attempt to cheat another.
Right now the bulk of unlicensed
shipments moving from Western to
Eastern Germany goes Throughout
in false bottoms or secret compart-
ments, nor along hidden paths across
the green border"-but in a semi
legal fashion which makes the most
of the opportunities offered by the
existence of a Western" Berlin be-
hind the Soviet Gordon. Juggled
papers and legalistic trickery are the
vogue.
Smuggling by Confiscotion
Here is a case in point. A feet of
heavy trucks travels along the auto
balm from Hanover to Berlin. At
the West German check point of
Helmstedt, the leader of the convoy
produces papers which show that the
shipment-all of it high-grade steel
from Ruhr mills-is destined for a
well-known firm in Western Berlin.
Since the Western sectors of Berlin
are considered an integral part of
the West German economy (though
not of the West German 'state) the
shipment is allowed to pass.
A few hours later. the trucks re-
appear at the German check point,
coming from the opposite direction.
They are empty, yet they obviously
cannot have been to Berlin in this
short time. The unhappy driver ex-
plains to the West German authori-
ties what has happened.
At Marienborn (the Soviet check
point, just across the line from Helm
stedD the Russian control officer
found fault with the papers. Point
ing to an obvious error in the cargo
manifest, he shouted something about
false declaration" whereupon the
shipment was impounded as contra
band" The steel was unloaded and
hauled away to an unknown desti-
nation.
Later the West German customs
men were able to reconstruct the
case in all its details. It was. of
course, a plant, carefully arranged
beforehand between the shipper and
the Soviet authorities. The consignee.
In this particular case, was not to
blame. He really had ordered the
steel, for use in legitimate indus
try of Western Berlin. But the ship
per deliberately had slipped into the
manifest few wrong figures the
error was so unimportant that it
escaped the attention of the West
German inspectors) to give the Rus
sian a pretext for seizing the cargo.
Technically the Soviet officer was
within his rights in doing so.
This is not fictitious case, but
an actual happening of few weeks
ago. 1t is only one of an infinite
variety of devices now in use to get
unlicensed steel through to the Rus
slams.
Many Strotoeems
Other favorite stratagems include:
l. Addressing shipments to non
existent companies in Western Berlin,
Or to actual companies which have
IL, .sA~ ~