Bottle Battle (Cont'd)

Fortnight ago, when husky U. S. Minister to Bulgaria George H. Earle asked a Sofia cafe band to play Tipperary, trouble broke loose. The Minister said afterwards that an anonymous German had heaved a champagne bottle at him and that he had punched the German in the face.

This diplomatic incident was reinterpreted last week by the German in question. Receiving newsmen, he proved to be a middle-sized battler with an adhesive patch on his forehead. He introduced himself as Dr. Karl Becker, 42, metal-type salesman, and admitted protesting to the cafe management that it was unpleasant to hear an English tune repeated. He said he had asked for a German waltz and that Mr. Earle, unknown to him as the U. S. Minister, had then called him a "dirty Nazi" several times and finally struck him with a bottle. Dr. Becker said he had retaliated--but didn't say how--and that Minister Earle had thereupon retired to an alcove and thumbed his nose.

Dr. Becker claimed that his forehead injury had been certified by a doctor as having been caused by a harder object than a fist, said he had filed insult-&-injury charges against Minister Earle just for the looks of the thing.

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