Evening star., 1944-11-19


people in the next few years will be
the most momentous in our history and
can be reduced to this simple question
will the United States be able to main
tain its present private and individual
istic form of nationals economy in the
face of totalitarian Europe and an
uncertain Asia?
That postwar Europe will be totali-
tartan seems foregone conclusion
which the men in authority in WASH
ington are hesitant to admit, but can
not emphatically deny. They main
tain an attitude of wishful thinking that
Russia itself has given some indica-
tions-vague, it is true-of desiring to
depart from its strictly communistic
doctrines and enter into the world of
Sree competition.
That Russia has abandoned, on the
surface at least, some Of its former
doctrines is obvious. But the fact that
Soviet officials are now decorated heav-
lily with gold braid, that priests and
ministers no longer are liable to per-
secution and can hold services in pub
lie, or that some individuals today are
making money" and are not limited
to the old maximum of 200 rubles
month, does not alter the fact that the
doctrine of state socialism is still in
full effect in Russia.
Communist Influence Strong.
Moreover, in the majority of the
liberated countries, where both the
monarchist and republican forms of
government backing free enterprise"
have proven such dismal failures, the
tendency of the people is to dovetail
their political and economic interests
with those of the strongest power on
the European continent-the U. s. S. r.
And this is obvious not only in Russia's
border states Central Europe and the
Balkans, but also in France and Italy
where the French and the Italian Com
munists are now forming the strongest
political parties.
Whether the Moscow government in
tends to "communize' the European
people is no longer of interest. The
people of Europe themselves after hav-
ing undergone many years of untold
hardships are ready to try something
new and that something new is COM
munism. The old rulers and the old
parties have been completely dis
credited. The attempts of the French
and the Italian bankers and Industrial
lists to cooperate with Hitlers totali-
tarianism, which he named the new
order in Europe, has brought complete
discredit on these men.
The resistance to the Germans did
not come from the rich classes or the
upper bourgeois in Western Europe, but
from the lower classes which formed
the maquis and the armies of resistance
and preferred to die, rifle in hand,
rather than be starved to death either
slaves in the Reich.
Peasants Role Unimportant.
These men now have the power Of
the nation in their hands. They may
still form a minority in France and
italy as far as the total number Of the
people are concerned. But they are a
strong and we'll organized minority
which no longer is awed by the police.
They are determined to play the para
mount political role in their country
and have already shown their prefer
ence for state ownership of the entire
economic structure. They expect to be
the state Consequently they expect
the masses to own what formerly was
in possession of the small industrial and
financial elite.
It is true that in France in particular
there is strong peasant land-owning
population. But the French peasantry
has seldom played an important po-
litical role in the last decades, and so
long as the government does not inter-
fere with their holdings they will not
oppose totahtarianism in France. And
France is the pivotal state in Western
Europe It's political doctrines are
spreading rapidly to the neighboring
countries. This is truer today than for
merly when all the countries of Europe
had to undergo five years of misery and
hell.
In the other sections of Europe from
the Adriatic eastward, the Russian
armies are strongly intrenched. This
part of the old world is considered by
Premier Stain as his permanent po-
litical sphere and he has been acting
accordingly. At Teheran he was con-
ceded the portion extending from Fin
land to the Adriatic as "a military
sphere" since the American and British
Armies undertook to fight the Ger
mans only in Italy and the west.
Communists Strong in Balkans.
Premier Stain seems to have UNDER
stood this temporary arrangement as
permanent and his armies today are
cleaning the Nazis out of the entire
sector which he regards as Russia's and
Is installing governments In all the
countries which are thus liberated" !"
The Communist element Is, Of course,
predominant IN the governments Of
Bulgaria, Romania, Yugoslavia and In
the Baltic states and likely will BE- In
stalled In Hungary ~ soon a. that
country is freed Of the German forces.
The situation In Greece n lees obvi-
Gus, although the only zeal power In
otescs today n the Communist PAR.
tisans wto already have stated that they
want nothing 10 Do with t1e "yasetst.
tinssd" polisicn o. King oeases. TAs
wha,s area from pinianA ~ ~ A1Fl-
ssie With ths ensep<ian = oseeoo \
eseup1sA ~ stfeaq ntnGlam fmveos
ns s~MInI1tssstsa y thees sevss.