Evening star., 1946-10-13

Kali WILT 1tCSldCAlt At0OcCfGAtc . WA
cessions to Prime Ministers Stalir
and Churchill at Teheran. Th'
United States today is cutting it!
wartime diplomatic losses.
The full terms of the Teherar
agreement are still officially wrap
ped in secrecy But it is common
knowledge. that in this wartime
treaty-of -spoils, Britain and Rus
sia, with the consent of America!
late President divided the Balkan,
into zones of influence. From this
gainful partition the United States
held aloof, giving away political
leverage and strategic advantage
won by costly effort.
Observers early argued that the
American retreat at Teheran was
dangerous. The Soviets, without
having fought anywhere in the
Mediterranean, aimed to expand
there. Britain, too, was adding to
its own borrowed power.
American Stake Demonstrated.
The new American stake in East
erN Europe had been demonstrated
by the iron lessons of strategy, inde-
pendent. of aid to Britain and Rus
sia. The costly American raids
against Romanian oilfields and Bull
garian ports; the openhanded help
under lend-lease to keep Turkey
leaning away from the Axis. and
the line of American airbases which
at one time even extended into
Northern Syria, were proof of new
pattern.
Today the permanent American
peacetime interests in the Eastern
Mediterranean include Palestine,
where American Jewry has subsi-
dized the Zionists for Is years, the
Iraq and Arabian oilfields, which
afford an opportunity to recoup
Americas abnormally heavy fuel
contributions to its Allies, and the
freedom of the, Danube, Darda-
nelles and Suez passages, with the
air bases and sea approaches which
dominate them.
In wartime, observers who called
for a strong, permanent American
aero-naval policy in the Eastern
Mediterranean were called "imper-
ialists," "anti-British. or "anti-
Russian" After the North African
and Sicilian landings the American
Navy continued in full action in the
Central Mediterranean. Even Ameri-
can OSS officers were guiding Greek
caiques on raids from Cyprus against
Axis-held1 Rhodes. Still no long
term Navy plan existed.
Gigantic Subsidy Seen.
Since Gernany's surrender the
United States, with taxpayers
money expended under UNRRA,
Surplus Commodities" and many
other agencies, has been engaged in
a gigantic subsidy of the British
and to some extent of the Rus
sian-zones determined at Teheran.
Even with such massive under
writing, the Teheran scheme Of
farming out foreign policy to
Britain and Russia has proved un-
certain. unbalanced, costly and
transitory in political effect. Even
with loads of lease-lend. Britain
has been unable to meet Russia on
even terms, sustaining smart de-
feats in Albania and Yugoslavia
without shaking Russia's grip on
Bulgaria and Romania.
What the Balkans, the Levant
and Egypt would like to know now
is: Does the United States Navy
mean to keep up the ForreStal
policy?
If the American role in the Medi-
terranean is for keeps, some of
these countries, with this reas-
surance at hand, could relax the
rightist hunt for Communists" that
Is. now going on, with British ap-
proval and in some cases support.
Communists" Broadly Defined.
A Communist" has come to be
any one who has read Marx, dis
likes royalty or criticizes British
policy. In Greece they have a spe-
cial classification of "crypto Com
munists," meaning some one who
practices these vices in secret.
American correspondents who are
"Anglo-Saxon spies" in the Slav
bloc are "cryptos" in Greece.
Should America assume. full
share in the Eastern Mediterranean
aiming at a point between Soviet
totalitarianism and British oligarch-
ical control, some of these illiberal
countries could be slightly less harsh
on the republican and democratic
perhaps even on the Communist-
enemy Within" knowing that the
enemy without (Russia and the
Slav bloc) were being held in check
by America.
Nobody knows yet whether the
American intention here is firm or
wobbly, whether America can find
itself political program or will
continue to initiate Britain's, and
whether the Nation has developed
those ideas of first-hand RESPONSE
bility-rather than secondhand
help to the Allies-which are the
best guarantee of security.
Former Aid Remembered.
The Mediterranean remembers
that there were American destroyers
at the fire in Smyrna more than 20
years ago, and that Lebanon and
Syria asked for an American trus-
teeship and were refused Will it be
any different with the Randolph In
Smyrna today, or the coasting off
Cyprus?
There is a danger that American
strength in the Mediterranean,
lacking any political program but
passive acquiescence in the status
quo, may be exploited by the Right
lists who are peculiarly linked with
the British program, particularly
in the case of the Pan-Arab and
Greek royalist movements. An
other danger is an exploitation by
Zionist terrorists in Palestine, who
count heavily on American Jewish
support against the Arab and Mos
lem reaction they are now building.
The other missing factor in the
American Navy's presence in the |
Mediterranean, besides a political
program, is naval bases. To have
Independent feet activity one must
have independent bases. What was