Evening star., 1947-05-05
StuIin on Cooperation

II WUIuS Wcle every bllilie, t1lc
world could derive great deal of en-
couragement from the text of the
Stalin-Stassen interview. But words
are not everything. They must be
measured by the actions that sup
port them or contradict them. The
Premier -Generalissimo of Russia has
made many heartening remarks in
the past, but his government, in it's
postwar dealings with other powers,
has seldom conducted itself in keep
ing with what he has said. At best,
therefore. his recent exchange Of
views with Mr.. Stassen, though. pos
sibly presaging a change for the bet
ter in Soviet policy, must be read
with fingers crossed.
Taken at face value, of course,
some of Mr.. Stalin's points invite a
feeling of real optimism. The deep
differences between the political and
economic systems of his country and
ours, he holds, do not mean that we
cannot work harmoniously together
in the same world. Deploring the
name-calling now going on between
us, he says that genuine Soviet
American collaboration can be had
If the wish for it truly exists on both
sides. AS for his side, he bears "tes-
timony to the fact that Russia wants
to cooperate" and to support his
point he expresses the hope that such
cooperation will yet be forthcoming
on one Of the most crucial issues of
our time-what he calls the Every
great matter" of Harvesting the
atom for peace with international
inspection and control. In his judg-
ment, Things are leading up to It,"
Encouraging as all this may sound,
however, the hard fact is that
events up to now have run largely
counter to Premier Stains testi-
mony. To cite but few instances,
the Soviet Union has held aloof from
the World Bank, from the current
trade conference at Geneva, and
from other projects for international
economic reconstruction. Similarly,
with the exception of satellite Po-
land, 1t has been alone among the
powers in blocking progress toward
atomic control, and much the same
may be said of its position-as report
ed notwithstanding a United
Nations police force. Above all,
wholly apart from the record ap-
plying to such places as Korea,
Greece and Turkey, there is the rec
ord OF the recent Moscow Confer
ence. Stated simply, it is the record
of one member of the Big Four
frustrating the effort of the three
other members to get on with the
peace-making and put Europe back
on its feet. Mr.. Stain himself has
acknowledged that the continent is
in every bad shape; yet Mr.. Molo-
tov, his Foreign Minister, seems to
have done his best to keep it that
way-a fact feeding the suspicion
that Russia's aim is to spread its
dominance by promoting chaos.
Conceivably, this suspicion may be
unjustified. But Soviet actions for
months past-both in front of and
behind the iron curtain" which
Generalissimo Stain insists on
maintaining-do not add up to a pic
ture of Russia wanting to Cooper
ate. On the contrary, they add up
to picture of Russia playing lone
wolf role in temper of self-elected
Isolation. Until all this begins to
change, statements like those made
by Mr.. Stain to Mr.. Stassen must
accordingly be subject to doubling
Thomas attitude. Meanwhile. we
can only hope-and there is still rea-
son enough to hope that the fine
words this time will be followed by
concrete deeds of the same spirit.