A Royal Promise

When plans for Queen Elizabeth's visit to Germany showed that she would fly to West Berlin for a day, that wasp ish historian, A.J.P. Taylor, reported in the Sunday Express that for Harold Wilson's "devious political purposes," the Queen would be exposed to the "personal humiliation" of an escort through the Berlin air corridor of Soviet MIGs.

As it turned out last week, the MIGs not only steered politely clear of Elizabeth's plane, but Communists on the ground appeared equally eager to please. When she and Prince Phillip drove past the Soviet War Memorial in the British sector. Soviet officers on guard saluted smartly. When they stopped to look at the walled-up Brandenburg Gate, two East German border guards could be spied in the quadriga statue at the top, grinding away with their telephoto cameras just like any old tourist. Philip waved cheerily at four more Grepos on a platform back of the Wall. Two waved back.

Visibly moved by the ugly barrier, Elizabeth proceeded along packed streets where more than half a million cheering, chanting West Berliners greeted her, waving paper Union Jacks. Her motorcade stopped in front of West Berlin's city hall, where John Kennedy in 1963 delivered his vivid "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech. Elizabeth is no Kennedy, but in her quiet voice she promised her hosts "the full support of the British government and people in the great tasks that lie ahead."

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