BERLIN One-Way Traffic

Through checkpoints in the Berlin Wall they streamed, in Volkswagens and DKWs newly polished for the occasion, on elevated trains and subways, by pram, by wheelchair and on foot. Though limited to a maximum of 100,000 a day by the new Christmas season-pass agreement negotiated last month by East Germany and West Berlin, and dunned three West German marks (75-c-) for the privilege, more than 500,000 West Berliners were expected to make two trips apiece to visit their relatives in East Berlin during the 16-day holiday period.

To a drab city where coats are still shapeless and shoddy, the well-dressed visitors brought gifts of fresh fruit, flowers, candies and toys. They would have brought much more, but the East German Grenzpolizei refused to allow any merchandise across the border that might display the abundance and quality of Western goods. Meat or sausages, phonograph records and stereo tapes, fur and leather goods, clothes or any products in cans, bottles or sealed packages were all strictly verboten.

Also verboten was any passage by East Berliners in the opposite direction. To underline that point, two Americans were sentenced to eight years of hard labor by an East German court for helping five East Germans to escape. Moses Herrin, 23, and Frederick Mattews, 23, both former servicemen working as bartenders in West Berlin, were arrested on Sept. 19 when the Grepos found a 13-year-old girl, trying to reach her parents in West Berlin, hidden in their car. Also detained by the Reds ever since Nov. 24, on suspicion of "aiding flight from the Republic," was Mary Helen Battle, 25, a West Berlin theology student from Oak Ridge, Tenn.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.