The Reluctant Swam

From Berlin, a TIME Corespondent cabled: "Like a swain who cannot bring himself to forget the girl who jilted him, the Russians are still unable to abandon completely the idea of blockading Berlin. Theoretically, rail, road and water traffic between West Germany and Berlin have been open for two months. In fact, hardly a week has gone by since the formal lifting of the blockade without Russian chicanery arbitrarily disrupting services somewhere along the line."

Last week, at the Helmstedt checkpoint on the Autobahn to Berlin, 300 West German trucks were jammed up for six miles. The Russians were making token inspections which required 15 minutes for each truck, whether or not they actually examined the cargo.

The U.S. authorities decided to mount a military convoy, manned by unarmed soldiers, with supplies for the U.S. garrison in Berlin, and announced that it would be sent through as a "training convoy." This show of force, decorated with doubletalk, was something the Russians could understand. They waved the convoy through, and simultaneously quickened the inspection rate of the trucks at Helmstedt to one every three minutes.

The Russians were apparently sulking over the continuation of the Anglo-U.S. airlift, which they had thought the West would drop like a hot hand grenade as soon as the New York agreement was reached last May. They no doubt disliked Western stockpiling in Berlin as a buffer against possible future blockades. But Washington accepted with equanimity the prospect of more trouble on the Autobahnen. Said one Department of State spokesman: "We worked out a pretty good scheme of retaliation measures at the time of the lifting of the blockade. The degree of our reaction will be strictly proportionate to the Russian attitude."

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