INTERVIEW WITH MR WALDEGRAVE BY JOHN DRAPER, ITN: 11 SEPTEMBER 1989
Q: Minister, what's your reaction to the East Germans coming across
the Iron Curtain?
A: My reaction is one of satisfaction at the Hungarians in
particular, who have taken a very brave decision which will cause
them some difficulties with their allies in the Warsaw Pact, the
right decision. And satisfaction that a large number of Germans and
German families will have a joyful day today.
Q: Do you think it's the beginning of the end of the Iron Curtain?
A: I think what's happening in Hungary and Poland in particular, and
this is if you like one side effect of that, is the most hopeful and
exciting sign that the Iron Curtain may be finally rusting, though there are some bits of it still very firmly in place around East Germany and Czechoslovakia, let aside Romania.
Q: Would it not be better though for these people to stay in their
own country and perhaps work for change there, ultimately would that
not be for the best?
They have the
A: I don't think it's really for us to judge that.
right to live in the Federal Republic which has as part of its Basic
Law that all Germans have the right of abode there. And the East
Germans are showing no signs of making the sort of changes that should be made in their reactionary Stalinist economy.
So it's up
to them and I think it would be unfair for us to advise from the
safety of the West on that. If they have the right to go and they
want to go, well good luck to them.
Q: Sure, nobody would disagree with that. But in the long run does
it not mean that dissident people who might ordinarily criticise the
Government for more concessions like Solidarity or Levin?
A: I do believe that there is no way in which the Eastern German
Government will be able to resist change. There have been over the
years large numbers, hundreds of thousands over the years, of