Door slammed on spying noses

(The following appeared in the August 16, 1962, edition of Izvestia and has been translated from the Russian.)

Until recently, as is known, there was no strict control on the boundary between the democratic sector of Berlin and the Western sectors of the city. It was easy to go from West Berlin to the democratic sector or vice versa simply by crossing the street or using the city transport system. It was possible to board the subway at, say, the Zoological Garden Station and to emerge unhindered several stops later at Alexanderplatz Station, situated in the heart of the democratic sector. Spies, saboteurs, provocateurs and agents of many espionage organizations that had built their nests in West Berlin made wide use of this opportunity. Now a decisive blow has been dealt the provocateurs and revanchists. As of Sunday, strict control has been established on the sector boundaries of democratic Berlin similar to that exercised by any sovereign state on its own borders.

It would seem that Chancellor Adenauer has nothing to do with the establishment of control on the border between the German Democratic Republic and West Berlin. Despite this fact, Adenauer held a whole series of hasty conferences and then issued a statement to the effect that West Germany intends, together with its allies, to take certain "retaliatory measures." Upon orders from above, certain newspapers in the U.S.A., Britain and France also raised a hysterical cry. As we see, in reply to the reasonable step of the G.D.R., a step dictated by life itself, the people in Bonn and other Western capitals are again snatching at the poisoned weapon of provocation. How can you avoid getting burned, gentlemen!

Brandt, the Social Democratic candidate for Chancellor and "Ruling Buergermeister" of West Berlin, displayed suspicious haste. Interrupting his pre-election tour through West Germany, he immediately returned to West Berlin. At an "extraordinary meeting" of the West Berlin Senate, Brandt called on the U.S.A., Britain and France, the occupying powers of West Berlin, to display "firmness." The West German police were ordered into an immediate state of preparedness.

Bonn and West Berlin circles have unleashed a noisy propaganda campaign aimed at convincing the public that the establishment of control on the border between democratic Berlin and West Berlin supposedly violates "rights" of some sort belonging to someone.

To what "right" are the Western figures alluding? Do they think it their right to maintain dozens of subversive organizations in West Berlin, which is in the territory of the German Democratic Republic, and to send spies and saboteurs into the G.D.R. and the socialist camp countries across an open border for the purposes of causing every possible harm to and impeding the building of socialism?

The working people of the German Democratic Republic have a different idea of their right. They are defending their genuine rights and protecting themselves against constant provocations.

Immediately after publication of the G.D.R. government decision concerning measures to establish control on the sector boundaries, mass meetings were held in various cities of the German Democratic Republic at which the working people declared their support of the government's measures.

The well-known writer and National Prize Winner Bodo Uze commented that the G.D.R. government had been forced to take measures aimed at protecting the republic from the threat of provocations. The socialist countries have repeatedly proposed negotiations to the Western powers, he continued, but the West has replied merely by intensifying the arms race.

Walter Kress, Mayor of Leipzig, hailed the statement of the Warsaw Pact member countries and the measures of the G.D.R. government adopted in accordance with this statement and stressed that the working people of the G.D.R. had long been demanding such measures.

Calm and order reigns at the Brandenburg Gate, where representatives of the people's police check the documents of pedestrians and car passengers' going from the Western sectors to democratic Berlin. The people's police verify the documents courteously and correctly. The G.D.R. says "Welcome!" to all who come to the republic with good intentions. It says a decisive "No!" to all who want to disturb its peaceful labor.