Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1946-03-08
Churchill Reiterated
Old View, Says Writer
Address Was Well Understood by
Moscow, He Contends
By David Laurence

Moscow, He Contends
By Dapid Laurence
Because Winston Churchill was 80 re-
Gently Prime Minister of Great Britain
and spokesman of the Allied cause In
the war, there is tendency to forget
that he speaks now only as a private
citizen. The strategy of his address can
only be understood by keeping that par
ticular fact in mind.
For Mr.. Churchill is too wise in world
affairs to think that any person in an
oficiai post Of major responsibility could
discreetly propose British American
alliance in the same speech which looks
askance at Russia's expansionist ten
denotes and yet avoid making the Soviet
regime suspicious of our faith In
United Nations organization.
The former Premier of Britain has
always shown an inclination to advocate
special alliances rather than collective
security. His speech in that respect is
not new but reiteration of an oft
expressed conviction which, for a time,
IT looked as If he had persuaded the late
President Roosevelt to share.
But Mr.. Churchill, knowing the
American leaning toward collective Sc
curity and our antipathy toward special
alliances-and few persons abroad know
the American way of thinking better
than he-must have had some other
purpose in bringing up the subject Of
an alliance at this time and coupling
1t with some pointed warnings about
Communist fifth columns" in various
countries Of the world. including direct
controls over the weak governments of
Eastern Europe which border Russia.
Motive Questioned.
What could that motive or strategy
be? Mr.. Churchill has right as a pri-
vate citizen to map out his own strategy
and to do his bit toward the mobilization
OF world opinion along the lines that
he believes will make an enduring
peace. One thing that Mr.. Churchill
realizes about world opinion is that his
voice is listened to and his words are
widely read and that the powerful In
strument known as moral force" gains
added strength when a world wide
figure employs it with all the frankness
and candor that a private citizen OF his
background can employ.
Certain facts about Russias infiltra-
ton in other countries had to be said
and emphasized-and Mr.. Churchill
pointedly called them facts" and not
views. Certain pretensions by Russia
had to be delineated. Mr. Churchill may
not have been speaking to the Govern
ment Of the United States or to Great
Britain at all. He may really have been
speaking to Moscow, where not a word
of his speech, significantly enough, was
allowed to be printed in any newspaper
or broadcast over any radio but where
the persons in high position undoubted-
ly read and re-read Russian transla-
tons.
Reminder of Past.
For, viewed in this perspective, Mr..
Churchill was merely reminding the
Russian totalitarians that Britain and
the United States had twice stood to-
gether in war and that twice the United
States came in reluctantly He was point
ing out. too, that in both instances
Britain and the United States were
driven together and were not previously
united by any alliance or program of in
ternational policy. As plainly as he
could say it, Mr.. Churchill was arguing
by the well-known methods of implicit
statement that pooling of American
and British military and economic
strength was not to be ignored If any
nation started aggression or embarked
on the courses that lead to eventual war
Mr.. Churchill said World War II could
have been prevented by proper action
in 1885 and 1896. This can mean only
that he thinks firmness today can pre-
vent Russia from assuming that she
can do as she pleases because Ameri-
cans have begun to demobilize the Army
and Navy and have become the victims
OF industrial strife and internal dis
sension, not q little OF which in some
quarters Is already being blamed on
Communist intrigue
Mr.. Churchill will be lambasted for
some Of his suggestions as likely to
arouse Russia's suspicious and to make
her even more difficult to get along with.
But Mr.. Churchill, who knows some
thing about the weaknesses of "appease-
ment" from his predecessor, Mr.. Cham
berlain, may ask his critics to forbear
and see whether Moscow didn't really
understand the speech only too we'll
when she decided to suppress it inside
Russia.
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