Abstract

Del Vayo- Inside Berlin

The article discusses the crucial fad in the life of Berlin, the Soviet blockade and the American answer to it, the air lift. For the air lift, the author's companion, a Berlin professional man who had been brought to the U.S. for three weeks for consultation, showed interest, which is aroused in all Germans by any prodigious feat of organization. The air lift can bring in seven thousand tons of goods; in normal times Berlin used to receive daily twenty-five thousand tons. Besides, the air lift must first take care of the needs of the Western troops stationed in Berlin; after that it must bring in enough food to provide minimum rations for the civil population and enough coal for minimum power requirements, that is, to furnish electric current during perhaps two hours in the twenty-four.