"Who is going to pay for all this? Who has thatmuch money?" said a cook in a restaurant on theUnter den Linden boulevard of East Berlin.

East Germans poured into Czechoslovakia aftertheir government lifted a month-old ban on travelto the neighboring Warsaw Pact ally, still theonly nation East Germans can visit withoutofficial permission.

By the time the ban was removed, 5000 EastGermans had gathered at the West German Embassy inPrague. Special trains took the East Germans fromthe embassy to the West German border andthousands of others drove through Czechoslovakiain personal cars.

The unexpected decision to let the refugees outthrough Czechoslovakia created the first directroute to the West since the Berlin Wall was builtin August 1961. Authorities have said the routewill remain open until the travel law takeseffect.

Many East Germans, including oppositionleaders, reacted cooly to the draft law.

Sebastian Pflugbeil, a founder of New Forum,said, "Travel is not the primary problem in EastGermany. Too many have left the country already."

He said on the West Berlin radio station RIAS,"The leadership must make other steps to prove itis earnest in its reform efforts and to win thetrust of the people. The tension between thepeople and the party has never been so great astoday.