Evening star., 1940-01-22
Has Russio Kept Faith?


asking confirmation of the fact that
A, B and c are the first three letters
OF the alphabet, for the Senate to
request the President to advise that
body whether Soviet Russia had full
filled her obligations to the United
States under the Litvinoff- Roosevelt
agreements Of November 16, 1898. It
is known to almost every American
schoolboy that those undertakings
have been honored in the breach,
rather than in the observance. Nev-
ertheless resolution designed to
elicit White House statement to
that effect has been presented in
the Senate by Senator Vandenberg
and presumably will be pressed to
passage.
Senator Vandenberg is an open
advocate of breaking off diplomatic
relations with Red Russia, not pri-
marily because of the reputation of
her understandings with the United
States, but as rebuke of the bar
barlc and unjuStified war on Fin
land. There are divided counsels in
washington and in the country on
that score. The preponderant. .official
view, in which The Star has con-
CURED, is that more would be lost
than gained by withdrawing Ambas-
sador Steinhardt from Moscow at
this critical European juncture and
simultaneously giving Mr.. Oumansky
his walking papers here. The Com
munist capital, besides being the
seat of Stains dictatorial power,
Is also the focal point of much inter-
national information and activity,
to which this country and Govern
ment have more or less direct access
as long as we continue to accredit
an envoy to the Kremlin.
The Litvinoff agreements termi-
mated a period of sixteen years
during which the Washington Gov
eminent consistently withheld diplo-
matte recognition from Soviet Russia.
Four Presidents-Wilson, Harding,
Coolidge, Hoover-and five Secre-
taries of State Lansing, Colby,
Hughes, Kellogg and Stimson-tena-
ciously rejected assiduous overtures
from Moscow looking to action long
previously taken by all other first
class powers. It was not until the
advent of the New Deal that a
change of attitude was revealed.
Foreign Commissar Litvinoff came to
Washington in November, 1898, and
personally negotiated a recognition
deal with President Roosevelt. The
latter proved to be what he himself
described as "a good Yankee horse
trader" or thought he had been, in
that he laid down number of stern
conditions precedent to establish
ment Of diplomatic relations with
the government heretofore held by
America to be a pariah.
Litvinoff pledged in particular that
Communist Russia would desist di-
rectly or indirectly from any and all
forms of Communist propaganda
on our soil and from agitation sub
versive of American institutions. He
pledged untrammeled freedom OF
worship for American religious
creeds in Russia. The United States
undertook reciprocal obligations.
The foreign commissar covenanted
that the Soviet Union accept respon-
sibility for some $435 100000 of czarist
debt owed to the United States
Treasury and for additional private
claims arising from confscation Of
American property by the Bolshevist
regime.
The Dies Committee revelations,
the pending Browder passport fraud
trial in the Federal Court at New
York, Treasury records and much
additional evidence during the last six
years form mountain Of proof that
Russia has not kept the word Lit
vinoff gave President Roosevelt. Nor
is 1t forgotten that four or five years
ago Secretary Hull found 1t neces-
sary to address a stern, official
remonstrance to Moscow anent pro-
ceedings at the previous annual con-
vention of the Third Internationale,
the political power behind the So
Wet throne. Speakers there under
official Red auspices, had brazenly
discussed certain aspects of the
world revolution. looking specifically
to activities in the United States.
Such discussion was rightly termed
a fragrant breach of the Litvinoff
pledge of non-interference in do
mestic American affairs.
The Vandenberg resolution may
crystalline more sentiment than is
now apparent for a breach in diplo-
matte intercourse with the Union Of
Soviet Socialist Republics, or at least
for reduction of our representation In
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