Evening star., 1944-12-10
Political Questions Arising
To Plague Peace Planners
Allies Have Eyes on Future European Advantages
While y, S. Fights Only to Defeat
Nazis and Support Ideals
By Constantine Bro,On

development of the Romanian oil fields
are convinced that soon they will receive
an offer from the Russian-sponsored Ro-
manian government for cash payment
for their interests. They viii have to
accept 1t. regardless of how small it will
be- because oil fields without refneries
are of little value.
Closed Books to Allies.
Politically, the Balkans, like the rest
of the Russian liberated countries, are
closed book to the Allies, although
nominally the armistices signed by the
former satellites of the Reich was made
in behalf of the Big Three. Little re-
liable information is being published in
American newspapers from those areas.
Whatever information is available comes
from sources which cannot be authori-
tatively mentioned because of the fear
that they might become "dry"
Between January and September of
this year, Marshal Tito was officially be-
lieved to be the protege of the British.
Yet when the Russians entered Ro-
mania and Bulgaria and began their
various operations in the Balkans, Tito
got away surreptitiously from his British
protectors, joined the Russian head.
quarters at Bucharest and officially an
nounced that he permitted" the Rus
sian troops to enter Yugoslav territory.
He refused similar permission to the
British. f-
Tito recently went even farther than
that. About two weeks ago. when the
British decided to land a small marine
expeditionary force at Boka Kotorska
on the Adriatic, the detachment was met
by larger Tito force which disarmed
the British and sent them back to Italy.
Tito was polite enough not to send the
men to prisoners camp, where he is
keeping captured Germans. like in
cident occurred last week at the Yugo-
slav port of Dubrovnik, where the Brit
ish were given permission to land, but
were prevented by force from advancing
into the interior.
Many of the countries which are now
being liberated" have joined the Allies
through their respective governments on
their own volition. because they wanted
to maintain their freedom and SOW
ereignty.
United States Represented Ideal.
This was solemnly promised them in
the Atlantic Charter which we drafted
and signed three months before we our
selves entered the war. And while there
is not single European nation which
trusts the other they all had a blind
and implicit faith in the word of The
| Government of the United States.
| Our entrance into the war was greeted
with unparalleled enthusiasm by all the
freedom-loving nations of Europe-par-
ticularly the smaller ones This en-
thusiasm was not due only to the poten-
tial military power Of this country We
got into the war fully unprepared after
| major defeat at Pearl Harbor, and
later the setback in the Philippines.
Our greatest baggage on the interna-
tional stage was our honesty Of purpose
! and our determination to see that justice
| would be impaired to the strong and
weak alike.
We were eheered as Allies not only
because our action made the defeat of
the Axis certainty, but also because
| 1t was believed in every capital in the
world that We would refuse to be made
the tool of power politics. We presented
an ideal combination for the weak-an
honesty of purpose combined with no
| desire for territorial conquest and
enough strength to make our word
listened to and respected by everybody
in the world
The European nations realized much
more than the people at home what a
powerful weapon our production and
lease-lend was and how by using in
telligently that most powerful "argu-
ment" we could restore strife ridden
Europe to some sort of peace.
Politically Minded.
| The European countries are all polit-
ically minded. They all consider war as
an instrument to achieve certain definite
political objectives. Russia, for instance,
has overlooked Teheran pledges to strike
at the Germans with all her might at
the same time the Allied armies in the
west were slicing deeply into the Ger
man Wehrmacht. Instead, Russia de-
cided to consolidate per political objec-
tives in the East, the Balkans, Finland
and the Baltic states, leaving the west
ern Allies alone to fight desperate and
costly battle against the main German
forces
Great Britain herself has recently
withdrawn divisions from the Italian
campaign-which itself was rammed
down the throat of the American STRAIT
egists who did not believe it was worth
the cost in men and materialHin ord
er to send force into Greece and thus
attempt to secure her political objectives
In the Eastern Mediterranean. Even the
British American campaign in North
Africa in 1912 had long range political
rather than military purpose. The
same motives prompted Prime Min
lister Churchill to insist on major oper-
ations in italy, although it had been
made clear to him that we would en-
counter there a bottleneck after the
start of major operations on the west
ern front.
! Our major Allies, it is obvious to all
except those who want to blind them
selves have definite political reasons in
this war. Hence, their desire and pres
sure to organize the peace of the world
| by zones of influence The United
States, having no such objectives in
mind as far as Europe is concerned,
alone has made the fighting itself that
is to say, the military defeat of Ger
many-its sole war objective. The