Two Million Risks

This week one statistic told the whole impressive story: West Berlin food authorities handed out the two-millionth parcel to a needy East German. Thus, within a fortnight, more than 10% of the whole Soviet zone population have defied or evaded their government and risked arrest for a ten-pound package of lard, dried beans, flour and canned milk.

All week long the Communist overlords sought an effective answer to this commonplace but treasured little parcel. They spread rumors; they issued warnings;they made a few arrests; they seized thousands of food packages; they appealed to pride. They tried force. Twice they sent flying columns of 1,000 or more bullyboys to West Berlin food centers to taunt the long, patient lines of East Germans. "Yankee bootlickers!" they cried. "Down with Ami beggar parcels!" With clubs and high-pressure hoses cops drove them away.

The Communists tried prohibition. They clamped a ban on rail travel to West Berlin, and enforced it with machine pistols in the railroad stations. This precipitated a war of wits: some hunger marchers bought tickets to points beyond West Berlin, then dropped off the trains to collect their food. The Reds temporarily eased up, then put the ban back on. They seemed uncertain how to act: remembering the uprisings of June 17, they dared not push their people too hard. For what people would do to get those ten pounds of lard, dried beans, flour and canned milk was a measure of their desperation and dissatisfaction.

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