Evening star., 1961-08-16
BORDER

Continued From First Page
ing forward and squirting a
quick blast in their direction.
Other Points Barricaded
Elsewhere along the sector
boundary the scene repeats it.
self for many monotonous
miles. At each intersection
streets have been cut with
barbed wire and concrete blocks
manned by Volkspolizel and
soldiers. Where there is a single
sentry he is invariably an Of
ficer. In the past few days
there have been numerous de-
sertionS of the rank and file
at such lonely points.
The problem of the East
German authorities in sealing
off the border is obvious on
BernauerStrasse in the French
sector of the city. There the
street itself on both sides is
entirely in West Berlin while
houses on the east side are in
Communist territory. All one
would need to do to escape
would be to walk out of his
back door or jump out of his
bedroom window. 1t is ex-
planned, however, that the
original tenants of these houses
have long since fled to West
Berlin and have been replaced
by most reliable party men,
bers.
Cars Are Searched
At FriedrichStrasse, one OF
the few remaining entry points
into East Berlin, cars run a
hundred-yard-long gantlet of
police examining passes, search
ing trunks and noting license
plates. Though the ban on West
German traffic across the Sec
tor boundary was announced
Monday night, it is still not
being fully enforced at most
crossing points.
A tour of the east sector re-
veals the extraordinary pre-
cautions the Communist au-
thorities are taking against any
possible popular uprising as a
result of their breakdown on
refugees and border crossers.
Police are everywhere. Person
mel carriers filled with combat
ready troops are parked at in
tervals on most streets of the
city. Heavy Russian-m made tanks
masSed in squadrons of four or
five together control major in
tersections. There is little ci-
villain traffic in sight and
streets seem unusually empty
of pedestrians.
The visitor brings back two
major impressions of his sight
seeing trip around Berlin.
FirSt-which must be highly
tentative-is that a large scale
popular uprising of the East
Berlin population is improb-
able at this stage. Unfortun-
ately, there is no reliable way
of measuring the mood of the
people on first sight. However,
the impression of many ex-
perienced observers in Berlin
is that it would take a major
incident to set off a real ex-
ploSion. To the extent it can be
judged. the mood seems to be
one of sullenness rather than
panic. And in view OF the
massive precautions taken by
the East German military, the
chance of a repetition of the
events of 1858 is slight.
The second major impression
is that the effort of East Ger
mans to dam the flood of refu-
gees with barbed wire and ma
chine guns amounts to a mill
tary operation on a scale that
cannot be sustained indefi-
nitely. It is unthinkable that
East Berlin can continue to live
for long under the muzzles of
patrolling tanks. Measures
which may succeed well enough
in desperate emergencies may
not be at all practical when it
comes to a long range cure.
This conclusion, however, is
not necessarily optimistic. The
Communists may we'll find
themselves eventually faced
with the choice between back
ing down or going forward to
even more desperate remedies.
Most certainly, as long as West
Berlin exists as a possible haven
for Ulbricht'S diSaffected fol-
lowers, the East German regime
will never he safe