Evening star., 1947-10-26
The KremIin Can Stop 1t


The KremIin Can Stop 1t
In calling upon the General Assembly
for total, unqualified rejection of the
Soviet proposal for an international curb
on "warmongering," Warren Austin, our
chief delegate to the United Nations, has
eloquently reaff1rmed doctrine basic to
our own and all other democracies.
The doctrine is the doctrine of liberty
OF thought, speech, press and assembly,
without which-of course, within the limits
required by the public welfare and safety
no nation can be truly free. 1t is what
distinguishes man from a slave. It is
what saves him from becoming the crea-
ture of state, the tool or chattel of
little group of rulers arrogating to them
selves the right to order him to act, think,
speak, write and conform exactly as they
say or be bounded, imprisoned, whipped,
or hanged by the neck until dead.
What Mr.. Austin has said on this issue
faithfully reflects the philosophy of the
men who founded our Nation, the philoso-
ply of all the great minds of the distant
and near past whose thinking brought
forth and developed the theology of free
dom. AS far as Americans are concerned,
it Is philosophy worth remembering at
a time when we need to be particularly
watchful of the witch hunt mentality in
our own land. In broader sense, as
applied by Mr.. Austin to the world at
large, it leaves no room for doubt about
this: That the Soviet proposal, if adopted,
would weaken human liberty everywhere
by giving international sanction to the
principle that every nation should enact
the censorship methods of the Communist
police state.
AS an American representing free land,
Mr.. Austin could hardly have asked for
anything less than that the United Nations
completely defeat this idea and refuse to
do it the honor even of eviscerating it with
amendments. For what is the Soviet pro-
poSal? 1t is proposal that would have
the U. N. condemn as criminal the failure
of any country to prohibit, prevent or
suppress war propaganda in any form"
And what does that mean? 1t means, as
the flre-breathing Andrei Vishinsky has
made clear, that the label "warmonger"
would be plastered on decent and upright
citizens like John Foster Dulles, Secretary
Hartman, Secretary Forrestal and former
Secretary of State Byrnes, and that such
men would be silenced. 1t means that our
Government would be guilty of crime If
it permitted the publication of newspaper
comment of this sort, or If it did not ban
books like Mr.. Byrnes' speaking Frankly"
1t means that Americans could not think
and talk out loud about military security
in dangerous world. It means, in sum,
that the U. N. would tell us to repeal the
First Amendment to our Constitution, copy
the Kremlin's censorship technique, and
tion anywhere, regardless of whether or
not the evil really existed.
All this is so self-evidently repugnant
to the democratic spirit, and so absurd
in terms of present realities, that the
General Assembly ought certainly to sweep
it away without ceremony. To be sure,
there is great deal of reckless war talk
in the world, but the men of the Kremlin
cannot end it by what they propose. They
are the primary source of it. If they
want to stop it, they can do so easily
GuOuSll. 1Ilcy Sdll Coll d Ildlt W tAlCAh
incendiary propaganda and their hypo
critical campaign of vilification against
honest men and honest nations. They can
start acting and speaking the truth. Above
all, instead of standing alone with their
satellites in refusing to cooperate, they
can join the overwhelming majority of
mankind in such great and momentous
undertakings as pacifying the Balkans,
writing treaty for Germany, promoting
recovery through the Marshall plan and
subjecting the atom to effective inter-
national control.
When the Soviet Union starts doing these
things when it allows its press to publish
the text of addresses like Mr.. Austins,
when it takes such addresses to heart,
when it decides to deal with the rest of
the world In an above-board and CO.
operative manner, then all the war talk
we are hearing now will begin to abate
and finally vanish. The situation is as
simple as that. 1t will not change for the
better until the Kremlin itself-the chief
villain of the piece-changes for the better