Evening star., 1945-10-08
Open Discussion Urged
On Big 8 Cleavage
Writer Calls on Byrnes to Reveal
sReasons Behind Russian Stand
By David Laurence

Dy DdDfu Laurence
Secretary of State Byrnes has told the
main outlines of the story behind the
failure of the Big Five Conference, but
what is even more necessary is that the
reasons behind the Russian position be
frankly revealed.
About the only influence that will
make for a correction of the unfortu-
nate cleavage that has developed is an
open discussion. If Russia does not
want either China or France to sit at
the peace table and insists that Great
Britain, the United States and Russia
should decide the major questions, what
Is the basic argument for confining the
decisions to these three powers? Why
Is 1t that France-with which country
Russia has concluded virtually an Of
fensive and defensive alliance-cannot
be trusted to sit at the peace confer
ence with Russia? What is the origin
OF the distrust as between Russia and
France, II any, and what Is the cause
of the sudden estrangement between
Russia and China, if any?
Conversely, it is important to know
why the United States and Great Brit
ain are so insistent that China, which
has very little to do with the settlement
OF European questions, should sit in on
the settlement of major questions. 1t
Is easy to understand why France must
be an equal partner. But it is not as
easy to figure out why China should
have to sit in on European matters.
Mutual Suspicion.
The cause of most disagreements that
have arisen thus far is mutual suspi-
cion and distrust. Unhappily the COL
lapse of the Big Five Conference has
served to intensity whatever hostility
toward Russia had begun to appear at
the San Francisco Conference. Plainly
| Mr.. Byrnes places the responsibility for
! obstruction on the Russians, but willis
he may conscientiously believe that to
be the case it is unfortunately true that
| he has not revealed enough to Justify
such an assertion, though it may be true
he knows the background of Russias
! viewpoint and could probably add in
formation to back up his position.
The American people are entitled TO
know all the facts and the arguments
that surround the issues. 1t may well
be that the Russians think they can
dominate Europe and that only Britain
stands in the way. 1t may also be that
Secretary Byrnes feels that Britain's
demands for dominant voice in certain
European areas must be satisfied or else
Russia will dictate what happens on the
continent virtually as Hitler would have
done If Germany had won the war.
The underlying difficulty is that
power politics" as such is still a British
and Russian conception-in fact q
European conception-and that the
United States has not succeeded in get
ting wholehearted support even from
Britain for a collective security setup
in which no nation would dominate but
all nations would join in building pol
icies together.
Practical Solutions.
American influence cannot be wasted
on any balance of power" setup and
those Americans who have for several
months now been arguing for "prac-
tical solutions" and for Anglo-American
alliances have only served to stir up
not only Russian suspicious, but a
Russian counterplan which has come to
climax with the Big Five meeting.
A new start has to be made. Russia
Is asking for virtual control over neigh
boring governments. Britain has al
ways exercised indirect controls over
governments in her sphere of influJ
ence." That system must be discarded
and the United States Is the only Ma
ton that can insist on a universal sys-
tenn rather than system of special
alliances. But If behind the American
insistence is a subtle method of pro-
tecting Britain's sphere of influence"
while denying Russia such a privilege,
there will be no way to persuade the
Russians to give up their program.
Clearly the whole world Is entitled
to know more OF what lies back of the
so-called procedure" difficulties that
wrecked the Big Five Conference. Mr.
Byrnes speech is an excellent start
but the world would welcome a further
explanation and more details because
If the United Nations organization il
to furnish military force to guarantees
settlements, it is best to know in ad-
vance what the nature of American
commitments to support the agreements
must necessarily be-
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