Evening star., 1948-02-23
Test in CzechosIovukiu

Near-1uture events pTODaply Will QeIeT-
mine whether the iron curtain is to be
clamped down completely on Czecho-
slovakia. Up to now the country has
managed to hold on to some of its free
dom, but the cabinet crisis at Prague
suggests that decisive test of power Is
in the making, with the Communists
determined to take over total control and
bind the Czechs hand and foot to Moscow.
The one hopeful factor in the situation
is that the non-Communist members of
the cabinet have deliberately brought the
situation to head-a fact indicating
considerable self confidence on their
part. They have done this by resigning
in protest against the efforts of their
Communist colleagues to place the security
police under absolute Red control and
convert CZechoslovakia into Kremlin-
serving dictatorship like Yugoslavia,
Poland and the other Soviet satellites in
Eastern Europe. With their designations
rejected by President Benes, however,
they are remaining in the government,
and Communist Premier GottWald-who
had demanded that Mr.. BeneS let him
replace them-now will have to get along
with them somehow, stage revolutionary
coup, or himself resign and face the risk of
a special national election.
There is some evidence that the nom
Communists would welcome such vote.
The suggestion is that If one were held at
this time the Communists would not fare
nearly so we'll as they did in the last
national election in May, 1946, when they
tho Stoo1n r1artu with
38 per cent of the seats in the Constituent
Assembly. The Czech people have since
had good reason to regard Premier .Gott-
valid and his comrades in the cabinet as
little more than Soviet agents who would
be quick-if given the chance-to end all
liberty in Czechoslovakia and make the
country puppet of the Kremlin. The
non-Communist designations, together
with President Benes' refusal to accept
them, have served to dramatiZe this point
on a nationwide scale, and If the elec-
torate had an early opportunity to express
itself, the results conceivably could be
serious setback for the Red totaltarianS.
But it would be foolhardy to under
estimate the strength of the Czech Com
munists. Like Communists everywhere,
they are tough, unprincipled, shrewd and
well organized. Moreover besides having
the premiership, they control such key
cabinet positions as the Ministry of
Information and the Ministry of the
Interior-agencies that give them great
propaganda and policing powers. Above
all, they have this advantage: That their
opposition usually is split up into different
parties and that it cannot be effective for
long unless it develops united front
Without such a front, the Red tide Is
likely to keep rolling.
The outlook for freedom in Czecho-
slovakia thus seems to be a matter of
touch and go. If the Communists
continue to work together, as they have
in resigning from the cabinet, they will
have a reasonably fair chance of saving
their country from becoming complete
Soviet satellite. Otherwise, sooner or later,
the Communists will have their way. And
that means that the Krenlin will be
entrenched deeper than ever in Europe
and have new opportunities to press
aggresSively against the West