Evening star., 1948-10-29
Mr.. Stains Remarks

1t is not easy to figure out the meaning
and purpose of Prime Minister Stalin's
interview" with Pravda correspondent.
The only thing clear about 1t Is that it is
a good example of the Soviet propaganda
technique of turning the truth upside
down and ascribing to others acts ascrib-
able to none but the men of the Kremlin.
Beyond that, although 1t suggests that the
Russian dictator believes peace will con-
tinue, it Is full of such double talk that
one can do little more than speculate about
it while waiting for events themselves to
clarity its significance.
In effect, Mr.. Stain says that everybody
the overwhelming majority of the United
Nations-is out of step except the Soviet
Union and its little bloc of servile satellites.
To support his point and to give the i'm
preston that the Kremlin is fighting a
hard battle against conspiracy by the
rest of the world to precipitate another
war, he accuses Great Britain and the
United States of having violated the August
80 Moscow agreement providing for an
end to the Berlin blockade in exchange for
settlement giving the city Russian
sponsored currency under four-power con-
troll. AS for the truth of the matter,
however, the record is abundantly clear
that that agreement was torpedoed by Red
Marshal Sokolovsky, undoubtedly on orders
from the Politburo.
To support his point further, Mr. Stain
says that during the recent discussion of
the Berlin issue in the Security Council,
m a off af %hn e{v NS,e,
members led to another agreement, but
that Britain and the United States nullified
that one, too-a claim vigorously denied in
Paris. AS for the final compromise pro-
poSal-which Russia vetoed-he says the
six neutral members connived with
French, British and American ruling circles
and that those circles, far from wanting to
cooperate with the u. S. S. r., are follow
ing deliberate policy of aggression, a
policy designed to show" that armed con-
f1ict with the Russians is necessary, "a
policy of unleashing new war" Happily,
however, according to Mr.. Stain, the efforts
of these war instigators" by Winston
Churchill-will end in '1gnominious fall
ure" because the horrors of the recent
struggle ARE still too fresh In the memo
rieS OF peoples, and the public forces
favoring peace are too strong"
Thus, although it stands alone and
morally isolated today in the United
Nations, Mr.. Stain strives to make his
dictatorship seem poor, misunderstood
victim of majority within the U. N. which
he implicitly depicts as being as evil as it
is overwhelming. The crime of this ma
1ority, OF course, is that it refuses to
knuckle down to Soviet policy and is united
In trying to keep the Kremlin from DOM
mating the whole of Europe and Asia. The
crime, in short, is the crime of working
together in an effort to prevent any fur
ther direct or indirect aggressions by q
power which has already built huge en-
pire on the broken and terrorized remains
OF nearly dozen once-independent lands
behind the Iron Curtain.
Accordingly. when Mr.. Stain accuses the
Western Powers of attempting to instigate
new war, he leaves himself wide open to
being hkened to highwayman accusing
MS prospective victims of a criminal intent
existing in his own heart only. Conceiv-
ably, this sort of thing may be effective
GO pAopoeoAod oeolsHeu 10 muQQle the
mind OF the world or to head of any
doubts the Russian masses may feel about
their aggressive dictatorship Whatever
the objective or significance of his remarks.
however, Mr. Stain is making a grave
mistake if he thinks that "the public
forces favoring peace" favor it so much
that they will not fight to stop the Soviet
Union from having Its own way in every
thing