The Wilmington morning star., 1947-04-05
Greatest Diplomatic
Failure
By WILLIAM HENRY CHAMBERLAIN

signed by Roosevelt Stain and Churchill on
February II, 1945. Its details had been doled
out piecemeal in rather understandably
shametaced fashion over period Of more
than two years. Soviet Foreign Minister Mol
otov seems to have given the impetus to full
publication when he cited the Yalta agree
ment about reparations to bolster up his talk
ing position at the Moscow Conference.
Measured against the developments of the
last two years, against the dreary chaos in
Central Europe, the immense totalitarian ex-
pansion in Eastern Europe, the alarming sit
uation which confronts in the Near East,
Yalta may fairly and soberly be described as
the most disastrous defeat in the diplomatic
history of the United States. It was immoral
because many of its provisions repudiated the
Atlantic Charter and those principles Of lib
erty and humanity to which this government
has always professed devotion.
1t was stupid, because it traded vital con-
siderations of American national interest and
security for what have proved to be worth
less Soviet 1OUs. And, no matter what its
apologists, whose voices have been growing
feebler with the passing of time, may say, 1t
was completely unnecessary
The Yalta document fairly drips with unc-
tuous and offensive hypocrisy. There are re-
peated genuflections before the Atlantic
Charter The signatories "reaffirm their
faith" in its principles. Yet the two principal
territorial decisions of Yalta were crude vio-
lations of the Atlantic Charter.
Over forty percent Of the area OF pre-war
Poland was transferred to Russia without any
provision for consultation Of the will of the
people affected. At the same time Poland was
assured "substantial accessions Of territory
in the north and west,' l. e. the right to
annex an unspecified amount Of territory that
is ethnically overwhelmingly German. Neither
Of these transfers, by any process of sophis-
try. could be reconciled with the Atlantic
Charter principle: mo territorial changes
that do not accord with the freely expressed
wishes Of the peoples concerned
Only less immoral than this arbitrary draw
ing of new frontiers in Eastern Europe, to
an accompaniment of brutal mass expulsion
Of many millions of people, Poles from East
ern Poland, Germans from the German east
ern provinces, was the treatment OF China.
There was no Chinese representative at Yalta.
Yet, in frantic effort to buy Soviet inter-
vention in the war against japan, which was
superfuous and detrimental when it actually
occurred Roosevelt and Churchill signed
away China's economic rights in its richest
industrial province, Manchuria 1t was agreed
that Russia should have naval bast at Port
Arthur, at the southern tip of Manchuria,
pre-eminent interests in Dairen, Manchu-
ria's largest port, and joint operation rights
for the entire Manchurian railway system.
When strong country whether it be Japan
or Russia, acquires sweeping strategic and
economic concessions in the territory of
weak country like China the stage is set for
trouble and aggression. The Russians subse-
quently turned Manchuria into an empty
shell, industrially by looting much the great
est part of its industrial equipment and ma
chinery.
Equally Objectionable was the agreement
about repar ations which may be considered
the primary cause of many Of our relief
headaches in Germany today. 1t was provided
that Germany should be stripped of capital
goods that there should be ''use Of German
labor" Ga thin camouflage for the introduc-
ton of human slavery and that there should
also be annual deliveries OF goods from cur
rent production for a period to be fixed" A
figure of twenty billion dollars was suggest
ed, of which half should so to the Soviet
Union.
How country that was being thoroughly
wrecked by bombing and that to be
stripped both of its capital goods and Of its
able-bodied manpoWer could produce suffi
cient surplus to warrant a figure Of twenty
billion dollars worth of reparations was not
explained Stupidity went hand-in-hand with
profound and cynical immortality in decisions
which violated basic American ideals, wreck
ed the economies of great areas, sanctioned
the restora ton of slavery and profusely sowed
seeds of hate and possible future war botl
in Eastern Europe and in the Far East.
American national interest was certainly
not served by selling out China in Manchuria.
by giving green light for the expansion OF
Soviet totalitarianism in Eastern Eruope We
would be in a far stronger political and
moral position today if we had never thrown
over our friend Mihailovich for our enemy
Tito. in Yugoslavia, if we had not accepted
with little question the Moscow carpetbag
regime in Poland.
1t may be noted that the little fig-leaves
of decency in the Yalta Agreement have been
made a laughing-stock by persistent Soviet
bad faith. The promises of free and unfet-
tered elections in Poland, of enabling liber-
ated peoples 'Hto create democratic institu-
bitter sound, in view OF what has happened
in Poland, Romania Yugoslavia, Bulgaria,
Hungary and many other countries.
The last stand of the apologists for Yalta
is the alleged necessity Of appeasing Stain
at the time when it was signed. If we hadn't
signed on the dotted line, so the argument
runs, the Soviet dictator might have quit the
war in huff, and where would we have
been then? This overlooks the important point
that Stain was far more politically and mill
tary dependent On us than we were on him.
The destruction Of any element OF check or
balance on Soviet expansion in Europe and
Asia was far more a Soviet interest than a
conceived American or British in
terest
Yalta was a disgrace, and needless dis
grace. 1t was concluded steathily without any
consultation with the American people or
their representatives. Undoing its disastrous
consequences will be one Of our main foreign
policy chores for long time to come. 1t is
an ironical reflection that many of the po-
litical fruits of victory were sacrificed on the
ALTA of appeasement at Yalta - just three
months before the collapse of Germany and
six months before the fall Of Japan. - Wall
Street Journal