Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1943-01-24
BY Richard l.. Stokes


Churchill made these commitments on
behalf Of the Governments of the United
States and Great Britain:
They desire to see no territorial
changes that do not accord with the
freely expressed wishes of the peoples
concerned
They respect the right of all peoples
to choose the form of government under
which they will live, and they wish to
see sovereign rights and government
restored to those who have been forcibly
deprived of them"
Surprising, it is asked, that a tri-
umphant Russia, insists as matter of
security, on anneXing the Baltic prov
inces? What if it seems well to establish
a Scandinavian Union of Norway,
Sweden, Denmark and Finland? Or
Southeast European Federation of
Czechoslovakia, Rumania, Austria, Bull
garia, Yugoslavia and Greece? Or a
Malayan Commission to take over Dutch
and British colonies for the kind of
education in self-government which
President Roosevelt once advocated for
backward peoples on the model of the
Philippines?
In view of such possibilities, doubts
are being expressed that any of the men
active in exiled governments and free
movements are destined to come into
power, regardless of the legitimacy or
illegitimacy Of the administrations they
now control These statesmen have
escaped the horrors of conquest, and
are therefore divided from their peoples
by gulf of cruel experience.
World War Example.
An example drawn from the World
War I was the creation of the Republic
of Czechoslovakia, which was founded
at Pittsburgh, in the United States. by
Thomas Masaryk, chief of a junto of
exiled patriots The government which
they established had not a shadow of
legitimacy. Ina broadcast last Christmas
Day, Prime Minister Nygaardsvold of the
Royal Norwegian Government in London
disavoWed any intention on the part of
his regime to perpetuate itself in power
beyond the time when the Norwegian
people are again free to express their
will in the traditional democratic way,
by the ballot.
Embers of civil war are smoldering in
dozen European countries, as was illus
trated tragically by the assassination of
Admiral Darlan. The Goals have been
famed by some of the exiled regimes,
which proclaimed vengeance against
fellow-citiZens who collaborate willingly
or unwillngly with the Axis. Clashes
between rival factions In Yugoslavia,
backed respectively by the Anglo-Saxo
powers and the Soviet Union, are be-
lieved by some observers to be germi-
mating seeds of World War III.
Opposite views regarding legal gov
ernments abroad have recently been ex-
pressed by Winifred N. Hadsel in a re-
port of the Foreign Policy Association,
and by Louis Adamic in pamphlet EN-
titled Inside YugoSlayia."
The role of the legal governments
representing occupied countries of
Europe is threefold,' said Miss Hadsel,
TO increase the war effort of the United
Nations, to maintain contact with the
Isolated conquered peoples and encour-
age their continued resistance and to
keep their national point of view on the
postwar world before their Allies. And
although the present exiled leaders
themselves may not remain long in
power, they are in a position to serve
rs very useful bridge between the
periods of war and permanently estab-
lished peace"
Struggle of Chques.
THE Yugoslav government in exile"
wrote Mr.. Adamic, himself a Yugoslav,
rs the quintessence of futility. It's pre-
dicament is that of nearly all other
governments in exile in London. 1t
consists largely of personal symbols of
the whole European failure which be-
came obvious in 1937-4O There is no
group of men in the world thrown to-
gether for whatever purpose who are
| more incompatible than the Yugoslav
government in exile, except one or two
other governments in exile. Utterly
useless struggles rage among its cliques.
But the government as a whole might
not be quite so futile, if it were not living
in a political vacuum in London, where
it is, literally, captive to the British
government. With all other exile groups
and free movements, it is under full
British control and censorship"
The position of the State Department
| regarding refugee governments and post
war reconstruction seems to be founded,
as nearly as can be sur1nised, upon a