Evening star., 1947-12-28

But zero hour for Greece Is ap-
preaching with the same rapidity
as that in Italy. The pending proc
lamation and official recognition OF
the new puppet democratic gov
ernment in the north will be q
challenge to the United States and
the United Nations. Russia is
watching with interest our reaction,
but the betting among European
Communist leaders is that 1t will
not result in more than strongly
worded protest by this country
whose officials are convinced that
dollars can defeat bayonets and
tanks.
Conditions in Palestine, where
Russia Fundamentally supported
the United States on the partition
plan, are as bad as the worst pessi-
mists could expect.
Arabs Gird for Battle
There is an undeclared war be-
tween the Jews and Arabs which
it is believed will become worse as
time goes on.
The Russian government does not
much care about the fate of the
Jews. Anti-Semitism in the Soviet
hierarchy which dominates Russia
has been rampant for some time.
The Soviet delegates rushed to our
support in the U. N. because the
creation Of two new states strongly
antagonistic to each other will
necessarily create a strong anti
American atmosphere in the Moslem
Middle East, the strategic import
ance of which is we'll known to the
Moscow leaders. Moreover, if the
present fighting results in full
f1edged war in that area Russia
ultimately will be in a position to
send troops legally to Palestine-on
instructions from the U. N. - and
thus dominate the Suez Canal which
is far more important for her plans
than the Dardanelles and Constan-
tinople.
Panay Incident Recalled
All these highly skillful actions of
the Kremlin are expected to weaken
our position in the present world
where moral concepts and economic
assistance for reconstruction are less
telling than blunt military force.
Prominent Frenchmen have tcld
hign-ranking Americans off the rec
ord that the recovery program alone,
without military backing of the
United States, will not cure the
Communist disease which is afflict-
ing Europe and Asia today. The
program can be fully successful only
if the physical threat to the SOW
ereignty of the nations of the world
can be removed.
Ten years ago, on December IL,
1887, japanese airmen attacked the
American gunboat Panay not far
from Nanking. Washington was eX-
cited. Subsequent reports showed
that this was not an unfortunate
incident" as the Tokyo government
claimed, but wanton test of
Americas willingness to meet the
Japanese challenge with more than
words. The japanese militarists,
like the Russians of today. regard
the United States as the sole OBJ
stacle for the accomplishment of
their plans for japanese domina-
ton of the Asiatic mainland.
When the news of the attack
reached Washington-a Sunday
night-Secretary Hull received the
then Chief of Naval Operations, Ad-
miral William D. Leahy, at his
apartment. The Secretary of State,
who had one of his assistants at his
side, asked the admiral what the
American reply should be. He an
swered without hesitation that we
should reply with drastic measures.
Whereupon Mr.. Hull's assistant got
such severe headache that he had
to lie on the couch with an ice bag
to his head.
Lesson Forgotten
Next day the chief of naval oper-
ations had a long discussion on the
subject with President Roosevelt.
The gist of this conversation was
that since the japanese had pur-
posely attacked our naval vessel our
answer must be strong. Leahy sug-
gested that we demand that Japan
end her aggression against China
we were then on record as the de-
tenders of China's territorial integ-
rity and sovereignty, just as we are
now in regard to Greece and Italy
and abandon all her ill-gotten pos
sessions. Should Japan fail to COM
ply with our demands, our fleet was
then strong enough-in proportion
to what Japan had at the time-to
blockade Nippon and prevent any
further commercial intercourse be-
tween the islands and the outside
world.
| Such a demonstration of strength
applied for the cause of justice by
the United States Government
would demonstrate to the totalita-
rians in Germany, Italy, Japan and
Russia that there is a democracy
in the world which is willing to use
force in the service of existing
treaties, agreements and interna-
tional decency. President Roosevelt
is said to have fully appreciated the
importance of such a step. The
American demonstration which
would have been taken without un-
due risks might have prevented the
o,,tl,roaL af tho Second World War