Hogs & Cherries

The "battle of the butter" began in Berlin last week. Days after the Communist refusal of President Eisenhower's offer of U.S. food relief, Socialist Willy Kressmann, borough mayor of the West Berlin district of Kreuzberg, dipped into his community chest, opened four mobile food stores in Oranienplatz, a market place only 200 yards from the East sector border. Loudspeakers manned by West German policemen sent Mayor Kressmann's invitation booming into Communist Berlin: "Fresh fruit and vegetables--' come and get it!"

The rush was so great that the stores sold out in the first hour and had to be replenished. Lining up in block-long queues, hungry East Berliners bought 25,000 kilos of potatoes, 12,000 liters of milk at a fraction of the prices charged in their Communist paradise (to encourage customers, Kressmann accepted East zone marks at par, instead of at the usual price of five East marks to one West mark). Anyone who could produce an East German identity card had his choice of five oranges (at 1-c- a piece) or two pounds of cherries (3-c- a pound). Said an old woman counting her oranges: "Unbelievable! I haven't had an orange in years."

In Wedding and Neukoelln boroughs, the scene was the same. Hungry, hurrying thousands, carrying empty bottles and string bags, streamed into West Berlin to buy a few cupfuls of milk and a handful of fresh cherries. This week they were back, with thousands more. Mayor Kressmann gave East Germans food coupons enabling each to buy five marks' worth of butter, margarine, meat and other foods.

In a hapless attempt to redeem themselves, the Communist government announced that 84 carloads of hogs, 39 carloads of fish and nine carloads of butter were on the way to East Germany from Red Poland. But while this much conciliation continued, the Communist rulers began to talk a tough line, and demanded discipline in their own ranks. Sixteen East German workers, accused of rioting, were sentenced to long prison terms, and Soviet T-34 tanks were once again seen on the outskirts of East Berlin.

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