Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1944-11-26


! whether they have college or only a
high school education, see things as
they are. They are not in touch with
governmental agents and policy
trainers" Of the country in which they
are stationed but with the people them
selves and have the ability to appraise
them at their exact value.
They know what the little man."
who today is more the country" than
the overstuffed politician, is thinking
and hoping for. They see France and
Belgium and Holland and the Balkans
and Iran and India as they are and not
as they are represented to be by the
diplomats and the politicians. They also
witness things which the strict censor
ship does not allow to percolate through
the stories of the newspaper corre-
spondents.
The soldiers know more about the
employment of lease-lend than any
legislator can learn from the voluminous
reports of the Government officials
They know all about the abuses which
are. occurring and are being covered
up because if they are brought to light
the relations with our Allies would be
harmed"
SkepticaI Of Peace.
All our politicians either in the exec
utive or in the legislative branch speak
about permanent peace after the Ger
mans and the Japanese are defeated.
But when the men who come back from
Europe talk about these dreams they just
shake their heads and smile. There is
no stronger paciflst than the American
soldier who has returned from the war
He knows far better than the gentlemen
in Congress or the radio and newspaper
commentators the fallacy of war and its
inability to settle anything. But he
is as skeptical about the prospects of an
ordered peaceful life in Europe as those
few who want to know where the
postwar plans, drafted in comfortable
high ceilinged rooms in the State De-
partment and In the foreign office in
London, will lead us.
According to the men who have re-
turned recently, the picture of Europe Is
gloomier than it has been since the
destruction of the Roman Empire by
barbarian hordes from Asia. ALI the
standards on which law and order"
had been based in the past have dis
appeared. The chances of getting them
restored are slim. The Germans are
being expelled from all the countries
which they had overrun. To us in the
United States, this should mean that
the liberated peoples are being reunited
in freedom and will soon return to pro-
pductive work.
But this is not the case in any Of the
countries. The German concentration
camps are being abolished but they are
being replaced by bigger and better"
camps where tens Of thousands Of al
legged "collaborationists" are being i'm
prisoned every day. There is no real
central authority. Local groups of
"Maquis" have taken the law into their
hands and are paying of old scores
by either placing those they dislike in
such camps or by executing them after
perfunctory trial.
Minor Conflicts Already.
Minor conflicts already have been re-
ported between the French irregulars
and the American doughboys who re-
sented the methods adopted by the
Maquis and particularly the gauntlet
to which SO many French women and
men have been submitted.
Every report from Europe points to
the unpleasant prospect that the people
of that continent may go wild" Under
the new terrorism of the Forces Of Re-
sistance in France, Yugoslavia, Greece
and Poland, tens of thousands of men
and women already are seeking refuge
Hardly had the Germans been expelled
from Serbia, for instance, than huge
concentration camps were organized by
Marshal Tito's partisans. Witch hunts
are now in progress, according to eye
witnesses who have returned to this
country, and anybody who is even
vaguely suspected of not being friendly
to the new regime is thrown into these
concentration camps from which only
few hope to come out alive.
The same thing is occurring in Ro-
mania and Bulgaria and is expected to
happA in Poland and Greece. Some of
the hunted are able to get away and
are joining whatever new forces of
resistance" are being created. They hide
in the businesses of the mountains, live
as best they can on whatever they can
find and are preparing to fight the new
rulers who are being established by the
assistance of foreign bayonets.
The situation in Germany, after all
organized resistance has ceased, is likely
to be even worse.
German Civilians Armed.
Heinrich Himmler, throwing all cau-
ton aside, already has handed over
pistols, rifles and machine guns to q
large part of the German people. Here
tofore he has not dared do this because
such action would have impaired the
control of the Reich by the Gestapo and
the SIS. Men, women and children, some
of the children only 10 or u years old,
are being instructed In the use OF fire.
arms. At present Himmler intends to
make them fight against the Allied
troops. But In his diseased mind he sees
something far more important for Ger
many. He sees In them the future Ger
man ::Maquis" who will be able to con-
tinue . guerrilla warfare against the
Allies after the German armies have
been compelled to give up the fight.
These conditions are tangibles which
must be taken into consideration in ap-
praising the future possibilities for peace.
They are however. being clossed oyer