Evening star., 1946-10-02
Lifting Of Censorship
Way to Prevent War
American People Being Misled
By Russian Propaganda
BY David Laurence

BY David Laurence
There is one way to prevent war be-
tween Russia and the United States
and that is to let the peoples of both
countries know the truth.
This can be done only by lifting the
censorship inside Russia and by per-
suading the American Government to
make public the texts of all notes it
has exchanged with the Soviet Union
since vi day.
The American people are being mis-
led by Russian propaganda. Thus Stain
made gesture OF friendship recently
by his statement given to British Cor
respondent Alexander Werth, but inside
Russia the government is preaching to
its people the inevitability Of conflict
with the United States.
The Stain maneuver Is now known
to have been merely method of soft
ening American public opinion and
diverting it from vigilant position to
one of indifference to the matters going
on between the governments at Paris
and elsewhere in the world.
Stain has also determined to try to
drive wedge between America and
Britain and there are signs that some
Of the British statesmen are falling
victims of the strategy, for they talk
about acting as mediator between Amer
lea and Britain and pursuing neutral
course between these two countries.
Party Line" Inside u. S.
Likewise, inside the United States the
party line" has been given to the inter-
mediaries who manage in one way or
another to attract innocent liberals to
their way of thinking. The chief STRAIT
egy in this recently has been to cause
Americans to denounce the British
policies. This maneuver was one of the
,Nazis' favorite approaches to the prob
lem of dividing the Allies, but it never
succeeded except to corral some ele-
ments which were quite ready to join
any cause as long as it was anti-British.
1t may be expected, however, that the
party line" will soon change and that
efforts will be made by Stain to build
up pro-Soviet strength in both the
United States and Britain while at the
same time carrying on the opposite
tactics inside Russia.
This business of pursuing one policy
to obtain concessions from Allied gov
ernments in pending negotiations and
another to build up pro-war sentiment
at home would not be possible If the
American people were able to read un-
censored reports of what the Soviet
leaders are saying to their own people
Only when correspondent leaves
Moscow can he tell all the truth. The
Russian government limits the number
of correspondents in Russia to a hand
full and exercises severe censorship
on all outgoing material, even though it
is merely reproduction of what is
being written and printed in the Russian
press.
Boosting Understandable.
A comparison of the contents Of such
publications as do reach the outside
world belatedly with what was trans
mitted by the correspondents in Russia
at given time indicates that the in
ternal and external policies of the So
Wet are distinctly different. There
would be no harm in this if the internal
propaganda were not designed to main
tain a feeling Of hostility toward the
American Government.
A certain amount of boasting and
exaggeration for home consumption is
understandable but, when totalitarian
government incites its own people to a
sentiment of suspicion and hatred, there
is bound to be friction in the long run.
This has been going on for long time
and now has produced similar suspicious
in the United States.
The truth of the matter is that every
bit of evidence received from persons
familiar with the Russian situation and
from reading of the Soviet press indi-
Gates that the recent statement of Stain
does not signify any change in Soviet
policy or any retreat whatsoever, but was
designed solely to affect external
opinion and to influence Allied govern
ments so that they would yield more
and more to Russian demands.
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