Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-09-28
A system Indicted

WGO4 0EItL1N.-OHe OF Tie MOSC
damning indictments of the Soviet sys-
tenn is the continuing story Of people in
flight from East Germany. 1t is also a
story that adds up to an eloquent in
dorsement of freedom in general and
the West German Federal Republic in
particular.
Distracted by the rush of other news,
the world at large has tended to lose
sight of this extraordinary human exodus,
which is surely without precedent in
modern times. So few statistics may
be helpful both as reminders and as
measures of the magnitude OF what has
happened and is still happening.
The first of these statistics is that
the Federal Republic embraces only
94,733 square miles Of the $4,000 square
miles of prewar Germany. Yet, since
1945, although its area is no bigger than
that Of our State of Oregon, it has re-
ceived within its borders total of well
over 100000 new inhabitants. This
total may be broken down as follows:
a. Some 100000 East European nom
Germans who have asked for and been
granted asylum; (2) more than S.8 million
Germans who have been expelled under
the PotSdam agreement from territories
and countries now under Communist
control; and (3) approximately 2.75 mil
lion German refugees who have fed from
their former homes in the Soviet occupa-
ton zone, including the Red sector of
Berlin.
1t is this last figure that continues
to grow by the hundreds from day to day.
During 1856, to date, the influx-old men
and women, young men and women, and
babes in arms-haS averaged about $4,000
monthly, or 100000 year. Most of the
individuals involved (they sever family
ties, abandon property and pay other high
prices for liberty are youthful and en-
playable. And West Germany-whose
population has swollen to about So mil
lion, as against static II million in the
Soviet zone--haS achieved remarkable
success in resettling, housing and finding
jobs for them, as well as for the expelleeS.
These refugees are a venturesome
people, and at the moment, If they are
reasonably smart and carry very little
luggage; they can slip through the some
what perforated Iron Curtain without too
much trouble-given little luck Then,
once they are through, they congregate
at three screening centers-at Uelzen,
GiesSen and West Berlin. Out of the
current average monthly total Of Is, 900.
roughly $4,000 Of them pass through West
Berlin, where most of them-after they
have submitted to inspection-are put
aboard planes (Pah American, Air France
and British European Always do a
profitable business with them) and flown
to a new life in other parts of free Ger
many. There are some spy suspects, of
course, and they are closely watched.
What is it that drives the bona fide
refugee to be refugee? There is only
one answer: He or she or the family
group can no longer stand living under
the Communist regime. The oppression,
the intermittent terror, the economic de-
privation, the RECOMMENDATION, the dreary
uniformity, the spiritual emptiness
these and similar hallmarks of a future
without hope are enough to build up an
almost irresistible compulsion to escape
to where there is freedom in the air
and an opportunity to enjoy a decent
existence
Hiiu 81 Illc LlBLlt WESTWARD COnClnueS
apace, varying in degree, up and down
like barometer, as shifting Communist
policy either hardens or becomes a bit
less inSufferable from week to week. AS
for tomorrow'S world, the refugees or
escapees--like the 8.8 million expellees-
hope against hope, most, of them, for
peace settlement Of a sort that will enable
them eventually to return to the homes
they used to have, and the neighborS and
kin they used to live with, before the
nightmare of sovietization became the
reality it is.
Meanwhile, as far as East Germany
is concerned, the present monthly outflow
of $4,000 escaping subjects (most of them
young) apparently is having a serious
effect on productive capacity and on the
recruitment Of enough volunteers" to
maintain the 1O0,O0O-man peoples
army" in good working order.
All Of which must nettle and en-
barrass the men Of the Kremlin. Ger
tainly, 1t constitutes devastating conn
mentary on what the Soviet Union stands
for.
A W:J~,.,fe W:.L