Evening star., 1945-07-01
Peace Hinges on How Well
Peoples Know Each Other
San Francisco Charter Provides Machinery, but
Mutual Understanding and Trust Vital
to Its Successful Functioning
BY Constantine Brolcn

Ifne Brolcn
is concerned, we don't know Russia bet
ter than by hearsay.
The whole trouble comes from the
fact that the Soviet government a long
time ago built wall around itself. The
war, In which we became Russia's most
| important partner, has not modified this
| policy born after the Bolsheviks came
| to power.
| The drastic changes which occurred
| in that immense empire were not PAL
atable to the Western World. AS con-
sequence, the strictest kind of censor
ship was imposed on the national press
| and the foreign reporters. Russias
entry into the concert of civilized pow
ers did not change this policy. Quite
the contrary. In all countries which
became Russia's "proteges" the same
kind of censorship was introduced as
soon as the Russian troops and their
puppet rulers took over.
For some reason or other, the Rus
sian government continues to be highly
suspicious of any Westerner and news
paper correspondents are unjustly con-
sidered potential spies. They are con-
fined to Moscow, or Belgrade, or what
ever capital a few of them have been
permitted to enter Their movements are
strictly restricted and their dispatches
are heavily censored. There is neither
argument nor appeal to the decisions
taken frequently by minor officials as
far as the application of the blue pencil
is concerned.
Since Russia is a very important
country, the newspapers, the news
agencies and the broadcasting services
are anxious to have representatives
! there The stories told by these able
reporters when they return to this
country would make interesting, though
favorable reading for the American pub
lie. But they do not dare talk in public
or be quoted because they know their
colleagues who have been left behind
will suffer "reprisals." The organization
which the over-loquacious reporter rep
resents may find itself deprived of the
coverage privileges. And this would be
heavy blow in the highly competitive
system in which we live.
No Real Reporting.
A good professional newspaperman
must write the news regardless of how
unpleasant it might sound, if he is sat-
isfled that the news is correct. Some
stories about the political concentration
camps in Russia and in the countries
under Russias protecting wing have
been printed in this country and have
aroused the ire of the Moscow authori-
ties. They may or may not be true.
The strict Russian censorship which
applies not only in Russia but also in
the Balkans, in Poland, Finland and in
Germany forbids the transmission OF
any kind of news which is unfavorable.
There is no real reporting in any of
these countries. The few American
newspapermen who are tolerated are
supposed to send only highly-colored
dispatches which have become meaning
less since they do not give true picture
of the station to which they are as
signed
Occasionally the Moscow correspond
ents are taken on personally conducted
tours" that is to say, under the super
vision of officials of the censorship
department who in turn are supervised
by members of the NKVD (secret po-
iice) to see things the government wants
them to see.
The American public, which is so
willing to be favorable to Russia and
become really friendly to that new world
power, is kept in ignorance of what is
actually going on in that vast empire.
1t knows even less about what is hap
penning in the areas under Russian
control in which the peoples of this
country are SO keenly interested. It was
through the efforts of the last American
generation that countries like Lithuania,
Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Poland and
Yugoslavia came to life.
Face No Restriction There.
There are millions of Americans Of
foreign descent whose people have come
to this country from those areas. 1t is
only natural that they should be warmly
interested in the fate of the countries
from which their parents or grandpar-
ents came and to have strong suspicious
against one of our most powerful allies
in this war because of the reports they
read in newspapers or obtain from let
tiers smuggled across the borders.
The Russian correspondents in this
country are treated just like any other
newspapermen. They are handicapped
neither by censorship nor propaganda.
They are free to go wherever they wish
and talk with whomever they like. The
Russian correspondents at San Fran
cisco discovered probably for the first
time in their lives what we understand
by freedom of the press. And they did
not hesitate to send some pretty strong
stories to their papers in Moscow in
which they attacked many Americans
in public life and occasionally criti-
cized the American mode of life.
4 Nobody objected to these dispatches
There was nobody with blue pencil
to cut off hundreds of words or whole
sentences from their reports on Amer
lea. 1t is likely that they themselves
found many pleasant things in this
country, one of the few left where the
police are intended to keep order and
prosecute only criminals But to say so
might have meant severe punishment
on their return home.
Russia is truly great country. The
nations which she is by way of absorb
ing in her zone of influence are equally
interesting and worthwhile But they
are closed book to the American peo-
pie because the Russian authorities will
not permit the American reporter to do
constructive job.