Pay or Go Hungry

Berlin was one place last week that the warm winds of peace passed by: a new cold front had settled over the city instead.

The East German Communists abruptly canceled, effective May 1, basic ration cards of some 40,000 Eastern Berliners who hold jobs in the city's Western sectors. The new order also voided the ration privileges of people engaged in what is left of private business in East Germany --all "owners, co-owners, partners and concessionaries of private industry or business employing more than five persons ... as well as wholesalers, owners and concessionaries of cafes and saloons, also retailers and [landlords] . . ."

Without ration cards for foodstuffs and some consumer goods, these Berliners must go without, or buy in the state-owned HO stores, where prices are exorbitant. The Communists insisted that their latest squeeze had been done at the request of "the broadest stratum of our society, the workers." The real explanation, however, could be found in a Communist admission last week that production of meat, milk, cereals and sugar has fallen "far behind the plan" in East Germany.

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