Berlin: Spree on the Spree

None of the East German border guards were suspicious one morning last week when the comfortable old Friedrich Wolf slipped its mooring and chugged down the River Spree (pronounced Shpray), which for two miles divides East and West Berlin. The 500-ton boat was, after all, just part of the Communist "White Fleet," the line that runs excursions for deserving comrades up and down the tangled river and canal network of East Berlin.

Carefully, the old tub hugged the right —Communist—side of the Spree, in compliance with strict orders to stay as far as...