TENSION EASES IN-BERLIN

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29911, 27 August 1962, Page 9

TENSION EASES IN-BERLIN

Gunfire Heard Beyond Wall

(N.Z.P-A.-Reuter — Copyright)

BERLIN, August 26.

Gunfire was heard on the Communist side of the Berlin wall today and two escape attempts were made, but tension in the city appeared to be easing after nine days of bitter East-West wrangling.

In spite of the shooting, the angry crowds, which a few days ago were stoning Soviet Army buses and shouting insults across the wall, were not to be seen at the week-end.

West Berlin police remained on the alert along the wall, but the bitter indignation which welled up after the killing on August 17 of Peter Fechter, aged 18, an East German, seemed to be subsiding. In its place was the old implacable hatred and contempt for the wall and its Communist builders The East German news agency. A.D.N., said yesterday that the Soviet Embassy in East Berlin had refused to accept Monday's French protest at the shooting of a 19-year-old refugee. Hans Dieter Wesa. because the letter “did not come within the competence" of the Soviet Ambassador to East Germany.

This was the first attempt by any of the Western Allies to protest to the Soviet authorities in Berlin since the office of Soviet commandant was abolished on Wednesday. An East German general was appointed commandant of East Berlin the next day. Escaper Caught

East German border guards yesterday fired at and recaptured an Ea t German refugee who tried to swim a 100-yard wide border canal

into the American sector. The East Germans fired 21 shots at the escaper as he tried desperately to reach the far bank.

West Berlin police said he was not hit and was plucked out of the water by an East German river patrol only 10 yards from the Western bank.

About the same time and a few hundred yards to the south, a 20-year-old East German border policeman climbed the border wall under a hail of bullets and managed to escape unhurt into West Berlin. Firing Heard

Police said shots were heard along the border several times during the night, but the reason could not be established. Between five and 10 shots were fired near the place where the policeman climbed the wall. About five shots also rang out near the East German House of Ministeries at Wilhelmstrasse, not far from Checkpoint Charlie, the United States military police post at the Friederichstrasse border crossing for foreigners.

In Was.hin.gton. American autihorities said they believed

tensions in Berlin were easing in spite of new. sharply-worded diplomatic exchanges between Moscow and the West. The first diplomatic blow was struck by the Western Big Three. In identical Notes delivered in Moscow, the United States. Britain and France held the Russians responsible for “cold-blooded killing" of many Germ ins trying to escape to West Berlin over the wall. The Western Big Three proposed a meeting of the four occupation Power representatives. preferably in Berlin, to prevent “further deterioration of the situation there.” The Russians, who have rejected such Western suggestions before, sent off a protest against the stoning of Russian soldiers bv West Berliners The Russians threatened to take “necessary measures" for the safety of Soviet soldiers in Washington.

The S‘?.te Department press officer. Mr Joseph Reap, commented only that the Soviet Note will be studied. “Turn for Better”

Other United States authorities expressed the view that the Soviet actions were speaking louder than words and that events had taken a turn for the better. These officials rn'ted particularly that the Soviet trooos assigned to guard the Russian war memorial in West Berlin, in contrast to yesterday made little pro’est over the escort which United States forces insisted on providing for them

They said that comnared to a more belligerent attitude last week, the Russian soldiers seemed inclined to accede to United States reauests about tiheir conduct on the way to the memorial. The Associated Press said United States officials believed that there were signs that Moscow had recognised it could not go much further on a collision course.