The Wilmington morning star., 1946-07-03
Fair Enough
BY wESTBROOK PEGLER


Copyright, by King Features Syndicate, Inc.)
NEW YORK.-IlyaE hrenburg, one of three
Russian journalists who toured tn e United
States Tor two months, writes a strange fare
well that may be described as an affectionate
threat ut war. This man a correspondent OF
Izvestia, obviously speaks for Stain inasmuc
as the press which he represents is controlled
by and edited strictly in the interests Of the
dictatorship.
1t is refreshing to read some of his i'm
pressions of us because, like Dickens, he
looked at us through critical, and unfriendly
eyes and observed peculiarities, and flaws,
that are commonplace to the native. HI did
not mention baseball which must have
amused him, not as a sport but as a juvenile
obsession, but he did spare a phrase Of con-
tempt for some local meetings of the Lions
club where "full-grown men, merchants. Of
suspenders or Of electric ranges, initiating
lions, roared upon command" u.
Complex country" he sighed in battle
ment, great country, with a great people
and a great future"
Ehrenburg has the advantage of US. We let
him travel freely wherever he would and,
in parting, he was not required 70 submit
his threatening admonition to an American
censor. American journalists and tourists en-
joy no such freedom of movement or obser-
walton in Russia and those American CORE
spondents in Moscow who have written of
his country, his people and the slave camps
in the same tone that ne applied to us, he
denounces as Journalists VIII o misintorm.'
He came here "as a friend and tried to see
and understand but American reporters who,
like Ehrenburg here, found Russia imperfect
by American standards, he disqualifies as
obvious enemies"
This man and his colleagues were accompa-
MED on their tour by Representative of the
State Department for what reason Americans
will not readily understand unless it could
have been that, as servants of a state press,
they were regarded as official guests and
such attendance was a Diplomatic honor. Sure
ly this escort would not have been imposed
on them had they preferred to 60 it alone
Or entirely under the auspices of their COM
munist friends among us. Yet Ehrenburs
would have it that this escort was compulsory
and made that his answer to the complaint
of American reporters M Russia that his
foreign office not mel ely "accompanied'
them on their travels curing the war but
restricted and directed them, and still does.
He neglected to observe that Russian govern
ment papers may send here as many cor
respondents as they like to, and select them
for their proven enrnity to the American sys-
tenn of government, while the camel at the
needles eye has no greater problem than an
American writer, equally hostile to commu-
nism and Hitlerisrn, beth, who applies for
papers to enter Russia.
In New York, he saw a box Of cigars that
cost 5000, although, in considerable obser-
walton mid pleasures and palaces from Palm
Beach to Hollywood, observing the rich at
play, I never had that experience. By con.
trast. in Mississippi, he encountered a family
of eight whose total earnings were only 5000
a year. Noting that he here selected dramatic
extremes and that he failed to say whether
the family had hams on the rafters. I am
reminded that for several years, the Ameri-
can communists have Leen emphasizing great
contrasts in the condition of Russians, many
Of whom live luxuriously and others in power
ty. Moreover, the descriptions Of the state
b%anquets that Stain and other Russian digni-
taries gave for visiting American and British
statesmen during the war bespoke extrava-
gance end drunkenness fairly comparable to
any historic debauch in any imperial court
and my own sole experience of Russian Of
fetal hospitality is still a memory of luxury
beyond anything else in my experience.
They had just reopene1 their embassy in
Washington and the occasion was a lunch for
an American reporter, then deemed friend
ly," who seems, however, to have fallen into
error and disfavor since. 1t began with vodka
in the foyer and there followed caviar, and
enormous cold fish delicious beyond words,
duck and such exquisite miscellany as our
communis minstrels call exotic delicacies
and the wines caused wings to grow on which,
at the conclusion. we all sailed out the win
dows, ignoring the stairs.
Skilled in the art of suggestion, Ehrenbure
warns the Americans that Russia still fights
fascism, "a disguised, a well-groomed and a
good-looking fascism'' and tells us that he
doesn't know when ''crr peoples will be able
to shake hands peacefully, when inept and
criminal speeches about a third world war
will stop, when we shall again meet like
brothers.
II do not know when but I know where
on the ruins of the fascist ideology. I want
to believe that the American people will tame
its rabble rousers, it's fascists who dream OF
a crusade against Moscow
Could Ehrenburg have in mind the ruins OF
New York and Washington?
Might l say q word for the merchants
Of suspenders or of electric ranges who
"roared upon commando"
We are a little short of suspenders and
electric ranges, just now. thanks in consider.
able part to Ehrenburg's comrades among us.
while, in Russia. I understand the lack is
even worse.
But when this Journalistic dog-robber for a
dictator whom even Roosevelt compared to
Hitler, derides full-grown men for roarins
upon command, the obvious retort is Ulster
who's roaring Upon command"