Evening star., 1947-12-14
To Counter Their Policy

Taken by itself, Secretary Marshalls
address to the Pilgrims in London was an
appeal to reason-a call for a universal
spiritual regeneration, for an end to in
cendiary propaganda, for restoration Of
faith in the proposition that men and
nations can live together in peace and
understanding. But Foreign Minister
Molotov-by his performance few hours
earlier at the Big Four Conference-made
it all seem like futile cry in the
teeth of the wind.
In principle, OF course the Marshall
thesis is as sound as it is high minded
All peoples are sick to death of war; all
peoples want an enduring peace; all
peoples yearn for good world society with
as little want and fear in it as possible,
But peoples are not governments in the
Soviet Union and its satellite empire they
cannot veto or moderate the acts of their
iron-f1sted rulers. They have binders on
their eyes, shoppers in their ears, gags in
their mouths, and the secret police stand
ing behind them with truncheons and
passports to death or Siberia. They are
told only what the dictatorship tells them;
they are subjected to an endless barrage
OF truth-butchering propaganda, and they
are forced to toe the line-or else.
So these peoples, though they want a
decent peace not less than we do, cannot
know that 1t is their government-alone
among the major governments-that is
frustrating their hearts desire. Or If any
of them happen to be aware Of that fact
they have practically no way of forcing
change for the better. They live behind
an iron curtain in police state, and they
are powerless to stop such things as the
shrill and persistent Molotov mockery of
appeals to reason, to honesty, to justice,
to truth, and to mankinds hope for a
new age of collective security and under
Standing-a never-ending mockery full of
insults, abuse, colossal fabrications and
shameless effort to smear France, Britain
and the United States with charges that
are, in fact, applicable only to the Kremlin.
To such lengths has this poisonous policy
been carried that even the patient Secre-
tary Marshall. just before his address to
the Pilgrims, was moved to say directly to
Mr. Molotov that it is difficult to feel re-
spect for the dignity of the Soviet gov
ernment. Coming from such high dip
lomatic source, that is an exceptionally
blunt and unvarnished statement But
there is little reason to suppose that it
will sober the men of the Kremlin any
more than the Secretarys appeal to reason
and good will will persuade them to join
in building decent peace. If signs mean
anything, all that they propose to do at
this time is to let the current Foreign
Ministers meeting end in failure and to
continue with their chaos breeding OBJ
structionism for the purpose of expanding
or intrenching their dominance wherever
they can.
The situation is thus one In which the
cooperating part of the world must
accustom itself to the idea that it is likely
to be many long year, If ever, before the
Soviet Union can be counted upon to play
a constructive role in the family of ma
tions. In the circumstances, for its own
sake and for the sake of freedom every
where, the United States must cultivate
and maintain the closest possible kind of
political and economic relations not
merely with Britain, as Secretary Marshall
has said. but with every other country
sharing with us "a common outlook on the
fundamentals of human society" and
common devotion to liberty.
Given that, plus adequate military pre-
paredness, plus constant and intelligent
international effort to reach the minds
of the peoples behind the iron curtain, the
Soviet Union conceivably could be made
to see the light some day. In any event,
the power thus aligned against 1t on the
side of a free world probably would be
formidable enough to restrain it from any
adventures likely to engulf mankind in
an annihilating war.
No Polifics for Mr ForrestnI