Embarrassing Exodus Of East Germans

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28701, 26 September 1958, Page 9

Embarrassing Exodus Of East Germans

(Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON, September 24. A highly explosive situation is developing, with Berlin as its focal point, as a result of the steady exodus of Germans from the east, says a “Daily Telegraph” correspondent.

In August, a total of 21,595 fled from the Soviet zone or 12 per cent, more than in the previous month. The total for September may be higher still. About threequarters of them now come to West Berlin. Tension in the East zone has been mounting ever since the Hungarian uprising, but it has taken a marked turn for the worse after the last congress of the Socialist Unity Party in July this year. A much more consistent effort is now being made to impose the Communist pattern on all aspects of life.

Caught in the net of the new political line are groups of professional people who so far have been relatively free from political interference—doctors, univer-

sity professors and scientists. They are now required to make public declarations of loyalty to the regime and to combine their work with political propaganda Doctors must reserve expensive prescriptions for politically reliable patients. Their sons and daughters are being refused admission to high schools and universities—a practice which for some time has been in force in regard to other members of the bourgeois classes. This year more than 800 doctors have fled. Teachers of all grades, of whom more than 2500 have sought asylum since January have been driven into serious conflicts of conscience by being expected to take a full part in Marxist indoctrination of their pupils, no matter what the particular subjects may be. The question which remains to be answered is why the East zone authorities are not doing more to stop this embarrassing exodus. The answer is they are doing what they can. Supervision of the border is now much stricter and observers estimate that as

many as succeed In fleeing are caught in the attempt. But it is hard to see what the Eastern authorities could do to prevent the stream flowing through Berlin. Short of abandoning their own sector of the city they have made it as difficult as they possibly can to visit the sector, but they can hardly stop people visiting their own capital completely. Once in Berlin, one can travel unnoticed from one part into the other on the underground railway. In fact two parts of the city are so intertwined that any clear separation of the Eastern sector would be impossible without ■ major upheaval. Such a situation surely cannot last for long, the correspondent claims.