Evening star., 1947-07-13
To Win the GombIe

The sixteen nations now meeting in Paris
to act upon the Marshall proposal for
European aid have embarked on an enter
prise whose historic significance can hardly
be exaggerated. Their objective-common
action for common recovery-will not be
easy to attain. But if they integrate their
resources and agree on priorities system
to cope with their needs, and If the United
States then backs them to the full with
economic support, they will have good
chance to save their part of the world
from decline comparable to the dissolu-
ton of the Roman En1pire-a decline that
would wreck their free civilization and
play directly into the hands Of the waiting
Kremlin.
1t can do no good, however, to minimize
the size of the ifs Although it may be
said that the Paris Conference will be able
to function smoothly because Mr. Molotov
will not be there to say mo-" the fact
remains that great difficulties have been
heaped on the project by Russia's truculent
refusal to take part in it or to let any of
the Soviet satellites take part in it, If
there had been no such refusal, If instead
there had been an honest agreement to
cooperate wholeheartedly, the outlook for
continental recovery would today be much
brighter than it is. AS matters stand, it is
anything but bright. Europe is split in
two, and that means-wholly apart from
the ominous political implications
the complementary economies of the east
ern and western halves will not be able
to reinvigorate each other with the tradi-
tional exchange of food and raw materials
from the east for manufactured products
from the west
This split, moreover, is not the only
worry confronting the Paris conferees.
There is also the worry about what the
Communists may try to do in France and
Italy, two of the key cooperating coun-
tries The French Communists are power
full; more powerful still are. the Italian
Communists. With their grip on organized
labor, they could conceivably play havoc
with the effort to organize Western Europe
effectively for recovery. This factor, TO-
gether with the apparent Soviet drive to
create and dominate a closed economic
and political federation behind the Iron
curtain" speaks pretty much for itself. If
1t means anything at all, it means that
the Marshall proposal is not likely to be
translated into magic working action
overnight.
Actually, the Western powers meeting
at Paris are seeking to make the best OF
a very bad situation. They have no other
choice, except to drift into the kind of
chaos that would open the way for Mos
cows dominance over the whole continent
as a prelude to similar expansion in Asia.
1t would be mistake, however, to suppose
that all the cards are stacked in favor of
the Kremlin The fact is that If the west
plays its hand boldly and with vision, the
Russians can be made to rue the day that
they refused to cooperate The ad-
vantages are by no means all theirs. On
the contrary, with little but negative
policy to offer their unwilling vassals, an
onus has already accrued to them among
the satellite peoples, who would have
eagerly supported the Marshall proposal
had they been free to act on their own
This onus will grow, the resentment of
Eastern Europe against the Kremlin will
grow, If the free cooperating lands sue
ceed, with American help, in staging an
economic comback. In actual and
potential strength, the western world
already far outweighs the world of the
Soviets. Accordingly, if the powers at
Paris hold firmly together, and If the
United States supports them in every way
it can, Russia will almost certainly lose
its great gamble 1t is a terribly mean
ingful gamble. Our own country's stake
in it is so immense that we cannot
afford to do less than our best in seeing
to 1t that our side wins.