President Kennedy's visit to West Berlin was eagerly awaited

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The US President, John F Kennedy, has made a ground-breaking speech in Berlin offering American solidarity to the citizens of West Germany.

A crowd of 120,000 Berliners gathered in front of the Schoneberg Rathaus (City Hall) to hear President Kennedy speak.

They began gathering in the square long before he was due to arrive, and when he finally appeared on the podium they gave him an ovation of several minutes.

The president had just returned from a visit on foot to one of the Berlin Wall's most notorious crossing points, Checkpoint Charlie.

He was watched from the other side of the border by small groups of East Berliners unable even to wave because of the presence of large groups of the East German People's Police.

"All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words, 'Ich bin ein Berliner'."President John F Kennedy said.

In an impassioned speech, the president told them West Berlin was a symbol of freedom in a world threatened by the Cold War.

"Two thousand years ago," he told the crowd, "the proudest boast in the world was 'civis Romanus sum'.

"Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is 'Ich bin ein Berliner.'"

"Freedom has many difficulties and democracy is not perfect," he continued. "But we never had to put up a wall to keep our people in."

His speech waspunctuatedthroughout by rapturous cheers of approval.

He ended on the theme he had begun with:

"All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words, 'Ich bin ein Berliner.'"

After the speech, the mayor of West Berlin, Willi Brandt, spoke out for the citizens of East Germany, saying they would be brought out in a few days to greet the Soviet leader, Nikita Khrushchev, whether they wanted to or not.

"But they would much rather be with us, freely gathered here," he said.

"We tell them, we will not give up. Berlin is true to those behindbarbed wireas to fellow countrymen in the West and friends in the whole world."

His words were followed by the tolling of the Freedom Bell from the belfry of the Rathaus in remembrance of those in East Germany.

For the first time that day, the massive crowd fell silent.

The Queen and President were on the Royal Yacht Britannia for the opening ceremony

Crowds cheered and waved flags, church bells rang out, sirens wailed and bands played as the Royal Yacht Britannia began the first leg of the 2,300-mile journey from Montreal harbour to the Atlantic Ocean.

On board were the Queen, representing Canada, and President Eisenhower who could be seen chatting together on deck and waving to the crowds.

Balloons and fireworks were released when the ship's bow passed a symbolic gate at St Lambert Lock made of old timbers from the lock of the Lachine canal which was built to bypass the Lochine rapids. The seaway takes a different route avoiding the rapids and rendering the Lochine canal obsolete.

Then all the whistles and sirens of ships in Montreal harbour went off.

'In love with the Queen'

At one point an American congressman called to the president from the lock side: "We have all fallen in love with the Queen, Ike!"

Earlier, the Queen as head of the Commonwealth welcomed President Eisenhower to Canada at Montreal airport.

After inspecting a Royal Canadian Air Force guard of honour they took an open-top car to the St Lawrence River.

There the two heads of state were each presented with a commemorative book with the names of the men who built the seaway.

The Queen then made a speech welcoming the president and his wife to Canada to mark the inauguration of a "great joint enterprise between our two countries".

She acknowledged the project would open up the centre of America to world trade and enhance Canadian commerce in the process.

punctuate:to interrupt periodically（不時打斷）

barbed wire:帶刺鐵絲網(wǎng)