A Letter from Lilo

When she got the mail from the letter box one morning last week, a Bavarian housewife noted that one letter was addressed to her absent husband, who had recently been enrolled in West Germany's fledgling army. She also noticed that the letter was daintily scented and that the handwriting was obviously feminine. After a minuscule struggle with her conscience, she ripped open the envelope, read:

My darling:

I still can't forget the wonderful hours I was able to spend with you. Unfortunately, it appears that you may not have taken adequate precautions. 'If this should prove to be the case, I will have to ask your wife to consent to a divorce. I'm waiting full of impatience for the hour when you will be in my arms again. Full of love,

Your Lilo

She was not the only wife to be similarly surprised. Hundreds of others in the Rhineland, Westphalia, and Bavaria were getting similar mail, and, despairing or vengeful, according to their temperament, rushing off to military posts to wave the letters in the faces of their baffled husbands.

Bundeswehr officers began an investigation. The letters differed considerably in penmanship and phrasing. But though they also differed in length and degree of indiscretion, all of them fitted a recognizable pattern. Most of the letters had been mailed from small towns just on the western side of the zonal border with East Germany. The investigators concluded that the addresses were supplied by West German Communists, that the letters were written in the East zone and then smuggled across the border and mailed.

To put an end to the amorous panic, the Bundeswehr had to ask the Bavarian radio to broadcast an announcement to quiet the aggrieved wives. But one officer felt not so much indignant at East German trickery as he did despairing about West German women: "They didn't stop to think, didn't use their heads, or refuse to believe the letters out of confidence in their husbands. No. They opened them, read them and, instantly, they were convinced." Another officer had a different concern. "I hope," he mused thoughtfully, "that soldiers now won't get the idea of nonchalantly palming off real evidence of unfaithfulness as nothing but 'Communist propaganda.' "

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