Muffled Response

Wrote the Berlin Kurier: "To anyone with a feeling for national dignity, it might seem unpleasant to bargain for the Fatherland as for a carpet or a camel in the Orient. But bargaining it must be." Despite such a willing audience, Molotov failed badly in his efforts to appeal to the Germans. The West Germans--even those who thought that by bargaining away EDC they might get a reunited nation--were shocked at Molotov's bland dismissal of free elections as "parliamentary procedure."

In Eastern Germany, the response to Molotov was muffled but apparent. The Communists spared no effort. They organized special half-hour "enlightenment sessions" at every state-owned enterprise, to expound the daily Communist position.

But in Silesia, miners quit work, booed and hissed the "enlighteners." In Dresden the Communists had to call off 33 of a scheduled 40 rallies because only two or three people showed up. At the Leuna chemical works, a rally was shouted down by workers who stamped, whistled and cried: "Free elections!" The nervous Communists alerted the whole 200,000-man East German police force, and ordered the arrest of anybody who shouted for free elections as "a saboteur, warmonger and enemy of the state." At Berlin, Molotov found it necessary to warn bluntly that the Communists would not permit another June 17 uprising.

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