Evening star., 1946-04-10
Letters to The Star
Believes Charter Would Annul
Secret Yalta Arranaement

To the Editor OF The Star
In The Sunday Star of April 7, Con-
stantlne Brown, whose information with
regard to the international situation
has been regularly confirmed by sub
sequent events, makes the following
comment on the agreements between
the western powers and the U. S. s. r.
concerning Eastern Europe and the
Balkans: "The great powers reluc-
tantly accepted all these arrangements
to transform countries which before
the war had been sovereign into vassal
states. The United States in particular
felt that it had to choose between
continued close collaboration with the
U. s. s. r. leading to the creation of
the United Nations organization or a
complete collapse Of the peace ma
chinery which our policy trainers had
planned as cure-all for the evils of
war and power politics. They consid-
cred that Russia's price-the subjuga-
ton of the nations from the Bothnian
Gulf to the Black Sea and the Adriatic
was reasonable in order to obtain a
lasting peace"
Unlike previous rumors, Mr.. Browns
statement is SO positive that it cannot
be overlooked. The reasonable" price
he mentions would represent the loss
Of independence for about 120 million
Europeans, from Finland and Poland
in the north to Bulgaria and Yugo-
slavia in the south. Now, the only pub
licly known agreement covering the
area mentioned above has been con-
cluded at the Yalta Conference At
PotSdam, and later at Moscow (after
the Stalemate at the London Foreign
Ministers Conference), the original
Yalta declaration was confirmed. AS
its known provisions are in total op-
position to the quoted passage of Mr..
Browns column, the natural deduction
would be that some secret understand
ing, which would in fact circumvent the
declaration itself, was reached either at
Yalta or before.
On the other hand, President Tru-
man, in his broadcast of August 9,
1945, after the Potsdam Conference,
and in his Navy Day speech in New
York; asserted that mo country is to
be the sphere of influence of any
power" Thus the President is not only
opposed to the "subjugation" of those
nations as the price for obtaining "a
lasting peace" as Mr.. Brown puts it,
but even to their inclusion in a Soviet
sphere of influence. This is confirmed
by the reluctance of Secretary Byrnes
to recognize the Romanian and Bull
garian Governments, If these do not
conform to the Yalta agreement.
The Presidents stand is in complete
accord with the U. N. Charter, ratified
by the American Congress; the "ar-
rangements' related by Mr.. Brown, if
they really ever existed would be in
complete contradiction with9 it. In
point OF fact. they would be invali-
dated by the Charter itself signed after
Yalta. Indeed, only those agreements,
prior to the San Francisco Conference,
which are not incompatible with the
letter and the spirit of the Charter,
are morally binding for members of
the United Nations. (Only ratified
SoiiipdSIo SOllSlllulc d OQllRd-
tionD
The only means to put an end to
the prevailing confusion in the rela-
tionship between the victorious great
powers is to publicly discuss all the
vexatious issues, using the Charter as
the basic frame of reference. Secre-
tary Byrnes has strongly taken the
lead in that direction, at the U. N. Sc
curtty Council, in the case of Iran.
1t seems that an authoritative state
ment should come forth at this time,
denying the existence of an unpub-
hshed understanding, between the west
ern powers and the Soviet Union, con-
corning Central Europe and the Bal
kans; or, If such an understanding was
ever reached, it should be made clear
that it has been implicitly annulled by
the Charter, which was subsequently
signed and ratified by all the United
Nations. CHARLES A. DAVILA,
Former Romanian Minister to the
United States.