Evening star., 1947-07-23
A Frozen Situation

The latest news from Hungary and
Romania makes clear that their Com
munist-dominated governments have not
been daunted by our recent protests
against the sitting of liberty in both coun-
tries. This should surprise no one. Weeks
ago-especially after the Russian refusal
to support the Marshall proposal for con-
tinent-wide recovery-it became obvious
that notes from us and the British could
have no effect, except as items for the
record, in stopping the determined drive
to make the countries of Eastern Europe
totalitarian vassals of the Kremlin.
Thus, despite all our strongly worded
objections, the last organized opposition to
the Communist regime in Hungary is now
in the process of dissolution. Thus, too,
the Communist regime in Romania has
assured itself of virtual stranglehold on
the country by arresting all the leadership
OF the Peasant Party and making sure that
there will be no more political resistance
of any consequence whatever. In greater
or lesser degree, the same holds true for
Yugoslavia, Poland, Bulgaria and the other
satellites behind the iron curtain" The
pattern is pretty well fixed. AS far as the
Immediate future is concerned, this part
OF the world seems destined to become in
creaSingly totalitarian, with its politics and
economy tied in as tightly as possible with
RuSsia's.
All this has come about after a long
series of British and American protests.
The protests have accused the governments
concerned of breaking faith with the Yalta
agreement on establishing democratic
processes and of violating number of
other solemn pledges, including Article 8
OF our peace treaties with the Soviet satel-
lites. This article guarantees elemental
human rights and fundamental freedoms
for all the peoples involved, but it has been
brazenly dishonored. Instead of putting
1T into effect, the Communist dominated
regimes have cynically burlesqued it with
a diametrically opposite policy-a policy
made up OF cruel political arrests, suppress
sion and terrorism designed to suffocate
individual liberty and bury honest opposi-
tion under a ruthless system of one-party
totalitarianism
Accordingly, If anything seems certain
IN this situation it is this: That addi-
tional notes from Britain and the United
States can do no more than what they
have done already-namely, keep the
record straight They cannot bring about
q change for the better at this time All
that can be done now-and it might be
well worth trying-is for the British and
ourselves to place the whole issue before
the Security Council or the next session
of the General Assembly. The issue is
real. 1t involves the question of how peace
can be maintained when solemn agree
ments, treaties and the principles of the
united Nations are unilaterally violated
a question that seems to call for show
down of some sort
1t would be mistake, however, to expect
immediate concrete improvements from
such a showdown. The long-term moral
eject might be of great value, but the
chances are that it would not stop the
present process of converting Eastern
Europe into iet-dominated bloc. In
this sense, what the west faces now is a
kind OF frozen situation that is not likely
to unfreeze for some time to come, and
we shall have to live with it as well as we
can, while continuing the effort to change
it for the better
or course, assuming that all nations keep
their sanity, war is out of the question at
this stage. But what is not out of the
question Is that the United States and
other democracies, for their own safety,
must work peacefully together to keep
totaltarianism in check and preserve and
strengthen the present area of freedom
Given that, we may at least hope for the
day when Russia, finding no real profit in
power politics, will assent to a one-world
system of collective security.
6~>..l--I.-I