VISIT BY TITOV

Press, Volume C, Issue 29608, 2 September 1961, Page 11

VISIT BY TITOV

East Berlin Plans

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copy right BERLIN, September

East Germany today prepared a big welcome fw Major Titov, the second Russian astronaut. He is due to arrive in East Berlin this afternoon on a four-day visit, the British United Press reported. The East German Government has gone all out to make full propaganda use out of his visit. It has called on factory workers to break □reduction records in Major Titov’s honour, and has organised a special radio request programme for the purpose. Each evening, it was announced, factories can telephone in new production records and request a tune. There were a number of incidents between East Berlin police and West Berliners along the border of the American sector last night. A water-cannon sprayed a crowd of West Berliners, who retaliated by throwing stones at the vehicle, and in another incident East Berlin police threw a tear gas bomb at a small group who booed them. In West Berlin, usually well-informed sources said, 36.860 refugees from the East registered last month—more than in any other month since the East German uprising in 1953. Officials declined to say how many people had succeeded in fleeing since the border was closed on August 13.