The Wilmington morning star., 1947-12-20
Destructive Tactics

By WILLIAM HENRY CHAMBERLAIN
As read the news from China and
Greece France and Italy, I often recall an
/ interesting conversation with a veteran
American expert on the Balkans during the
war; This man had gone to Europe Tor
government agency with high hopes OF sue
cessful cooperation between HuSsla ana
the western powers.
He returned Mortified with the picture OF
developing conditions in Yugoslavia and
other Balkan countries which he had
pieced together from talks with old friends
and acuuaintances. And he was gravely I'M
pressed by the success of the destructlonlst
technique which had been worked out by
Tito and his communist Partlsans IN 4u-
goSlaVla.
Whether the Germans burned villages
suspected of sympathy with the Partlsans
or the Partisans burned villages suspected
of collaboration, the net result was all
grist to the Partisan mill Great numbers
of simple peasants became destitute and
homeless Many had to flee fr o m their
homes for their lives and became rootless
| individuals, good raw materials for COM
munist propaganda
| Now these tactics of sheer destruction
| DolnR
communists IN many parts OF the world.
There is much testimony from eyewit-
ness correspondents that the Chinese COM
munists, long ballyhooed in red and pink
circles IN this country as champions OF the
doWntrodden Chinese peasant, are working
havoc on their own country which certainly
must outweigh any benefits they may have
/ given the peasants in lower rents or less
Squeeze IN administration.
In the provinces of North China which
are the main theatre Of civil war the COM
Japanese. Railways have been torn up,
power plants destroyed, mines flooded,
mission hospitals Quilted.
An American who recently returned from
northern Greece brought back very SINH
lar story. Many of the guerrllias in the
| Greek mountains are not volunteer patriot
radicals, fighting an oppressive govern
ment, but non political peasants who are
pressed into guerrilla bands by threats of
families if they fail to join up or it they
desert. The Yugoslav Partisan method of
recruiting peasants who are homeless after
their villages have been burned is also
utilized.
Both in China and in Greece there are
great numbers of refugees from the areas
torn with civil strife. To feed, clothe and
house these refugees, even on very
modest scale, is a heavy burden on the
limited resources of the Chinese and Greek
governments And of course, anything that
increases poverty, misery and economic
chaos is a score for the communist tactics
of destruction.
i One sees the same pattern in less vio-
lent form, in the French and Italian strikes.
These strikes have been under the direction
; of the French and Italian communist par
ties, which only recently openly associated
themselves with the communist parties of
the Soviet Union and of the Russian satel-
lite states in declarat of war on the
Marshall Plan.
The strikes in France and Italy serve
Moscows purposes. in much the same
Greece. Poverty and disorg ganization are
increased, the prospect of recovery with
: American aid is set back, and Marshall
Plan is made more expensive.
g. Now, of course the communists could not
Start instructions and political strikes
with much prospect OF success in stable
and reasonably pros perous countries
trative defects in China and Greece. The
French worker today has seen his living
standard cut almost in half prices by last
autumn had risen about eleven times, COM
pared with wage boosts to about six times
= the 1888 figure. There is a similar picture
in Italy, which suffered even more than
France in the war.
Communist destructionisrn, however, is
not calculated to improve the lot of the
worker, or of the common man" any,
, where. The answer to it is not easy to
find. Perhaps it will only be found when
and if there is a tremendous upsurge Of
national resentment against the wrecking
role of the communists and their sub
servience to Moscow.
At the present moment it would seem
that France has won battle, but has not
won the war. The situation in Italy is per-
haps still more disturbing, because it is
not yet clear whether the army and the
police are fully loyal to the government
and the Italian communist partisans are
]. strutting about boasting of their hidden
caches of arms. Perhaps sharp surgical
operations will be necessary before health
can be restored to the French and Italian
national organisms.
The destructionist tactics which commu-
nists are applying in so many parts OF the
world lends a slight element of unreality
to Secretary Marshall's statement at Har-
ward. when he launched the idea of Ameri-
can aid to the revival of working econo-
my IN the world" The secretary said on
: that occasion:
: Our policy is directed not against any
country or a doctrine but against hunger,
PonneIty, desperation and chaos
powerful country and one doctrine are com
mltted to promoting 'hunger, poverty, des-
peratlon and chaos"
NO political and economic calculation
,.a; ua1 ooes not take full account of this fact
W1 VII prove realistic in the long r,,n-Wan
street Journal. AoAs oil