Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1946-03-14
Churchill Talk Seen ;
As Constructive Move
Writer Declares Moral Force
Can Be Preventive of War
By Da.id Laurence

'NNe~A SSAoASo NAOA al A'oISC
Can Be Preventive of War
By Dauid Laurence
Somewhere in the neither world, II
the evil spirit of Adolf Hitler still is
able to view the international scene,
there must be sardonic satisfaction
In what has come to pass. For the long
predicted cleavage which Hitler sought
to create between Britain and Russia
and between America and Russia has
been accomplished in the postwar
world.
With that commendable restraint,
however, which nations can exercise
when they really want to prevent fur
Their friction, the world will be spared
a resort to physical force Already
there is ground for optimism. The de-
bate between Moscow and the outside
world shows that the Churchill speech
had telling effect. 1t revealed to the
Russian leaders that their acts had
created grave suspicion. 1t warned them
that America and Britain were both
apprehensive and worried about the
expansionist course of Russia.
The bitterness Of the denunciation
visited on Winston Churchill merely
demonstrates that the Russians now
are fully alive to the crisis they have
made in world affairs. The pointed
dispatches about American troops lin
gering in Egypt and the effort to ac-
cuse America Of violating an under
standing about Bulgaria are part and
parcel of the famous strategy OF con-
fusion that has at times served its pur-
pose in world diplomacy.
American Opinion.
What Russia, on the other hand,
needs to realize lis that inside the
United States for many weeks now
long before the Churchill speech was
Observation-Disclosures in every walk of
life have been looking askance at Rus
sia's behavior as q prelude to a war
Of aggression against weaker countries.
The address of the former Prime Min
lister did not create the record of evil
dence which the Russian maneuvers
have piled up so realistically through
the headlines of our newspapers ever
since vi day.
Many persons in the United States are
talking about possible war with Russia as
being inevitable. just as many observ-
ers talked about war between the Nazis
and France or Britain in 1888 when MI
Mich brought a temporary respite.
1t Is important that Moscow be in
formed that her attitude has pro-
duced a most unfavorable impression
here and that folks who want to get
at the Russian viewpoint and weigh
calmly and dispassionately her desires
for security and for the alteration of
the existing territorial status In Eu-
rope are driven away by Moscow's iron
curtain over the press in her own coun-
try and over the press Of the Balkan
areas where Russia dominates the
weaker states.
If Russia is not impairing the sov-
ereignty of the weaker countries, why
does she not permit unrestricted ac-
cess to those countries? If she does
not mean to intimidate Iran as she
did Poland, why does Russia delay an
swers to the notes of the American
Government requesting information or
explanations on Red troop movements?
Moral and Economic Force.
It should be borne In mind that even
d.
altered, the next step is not necessar-
lily war. Moral force is the greatest
weapon Of all times, though nations do
not yet know how to use it. Next to
moral force Is economic force and this,
too, is more powerful as a preventive
of war than most people imagine.
AS for moral force, a debate is be-
ginning before the bar of world opinion
The meeting of the Security Council
OF the United Nations is soon to be
held. Russia cannot long adhere to
a course which mobiles opinion
throughout the world against her. She
cannot long pursue a contradictory
course of processing virtue while at
the same time using the Red armies
to terrorize weaker neighbors. A rev.
elation of the facts will be salutary.
This is the stage of widespread pub
licity and the focusing of the search
light on Russian policies. That's why
the Churchill speech was a construc-
tive move, and what Is needed is more
speeches that tell the world what is
happening. The American Government
should make public all that it knows
about what is occurring behind the
iron curtain" in Europe, should tell
the people how Americans have been
treated in the Balkans and elsewhere
by the Russians. It's the only way to
bring the pressure of moral force to
bear against injustice. Russia bene-
fits by secrecy-in fact, has felt en-
couraged in her expansion because of
the hesitancy of the democracies to
reveal all the facts of recent happen
ings.
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