WORLD NOTES EAST GERMANY DIPLOMATIC RETREAT

Three weeks ago the Communist regime of East Germany began to insist that foreign diplomats show their passports when they crossed between East and West Berlin. Once more, the government's aim was to win recognition of East Berlin as its capital and force Western countries to treat the Berlin Wall as an international border rather than a demarcation line in a city divided by a postwar agreement. The new rule created a diplomatic furor and led to strong protests from the U.S., Britain and France, which still have authority as the occupying powers in the Western part of the city. Some embassies even ordered their diplomats to take a circuitous route to West Berlin in order to avoid confrontations with the East German border guards. Last week the East Germans climbed down from their original stand. The Foreign Ministry announced that diplomats in East Berlin would receive new identity cards that are to be shown when the officials cross between Soviet- occupied East Berlin and the Western sector. The government insisted that there had been a misunderstanding and that the passport requirement had been only a temporary measure. While that matter appears to have been settled, an attempt by the East Germans to stamp courtesy visas in the passports of diplomats visiting from West Berlin must still be resolved before the latest skirmish in the battle for Berlin is over.