Chamberlain Urges Intransigence in Berlin, Says City Gives Propaganda Boost to West

Terming Berlin "the greatest propaganda black eye that Communism has received," William Henry Chamberlain asserted last night that any yielding the crisis now could be as disastrous as "another Munich."

A writer for the Wall Street Journal and expert on Russia, Chamberlain assailed the possibility of any "orgy of appeasement," and said nothing would be as encouraging to the Russians as a prevalent "better Red than dead" attitude in the West.

He compared this attitude to a mock-serious resolution of students at Oxford University before World War II not to "fight for king and country"; Hitler took this as an indication of England's decadence and weakness," Chamberlain said, and was encouraged to go to war.

Chamberlain, who visited Berlin last summer, emphasized the contrast between the two sectors of the city: while West Berlin flourished under Western control, Communist East Berlin still lies largely in ruins. "The very atmosphere is so terrible that it is easy to see why it became a tremendous escape hatch for millions of people who wanted to escape Comunist rule."

Th question of air access to Berlin, Chamberlain asserted, is one of the major dilemmas the West must face. "Any admission that Russia has the right to control air traffic," he said, "will be a prelude to disaster."

Chamberlain urged "courage, stoicism, and resolution" in facing the Berlin crists. "Do we want to find ourselves walled up in a cage like 16 million East Germans?" he asked.