Evening star., 1948-01-24
To Prevent War

Churchill's call for a decisive showdown
with the Russians before they have
chance to develop and accumulate atomic
weapons of their own. This is talk of the
most bellicose kind, but the times scarcely
warrant anything softer. Wishful or
honeyed words cannot alter the hard and
frightening fact that the free western
world and the totalitarian world of the
Soviets are moving slowly but surely
toward a war of annihilation What Mr..
Churchill wants, therefore, is bold action
now-right away-to prevent the gather
ing catastrophe, or at least to enable the
democracies to come out of it alive.
To that end. speaking as Britain's war
time Prime Minister and as leader of the
Conservative opposition, he has thrown his
full support behind Foreign Secretary
Bevin and the Labor government in their
greatly toughened policy toward the
Kremlin.. He is one with them in urging
the promptest possible formation of
union or alliance of Western Europe, in
cluding the United Kingdom. Like them,
he regards such an alliance-which also
has the hearty backing of our State De-
partment-as an essential security meas
ure against the Soviet threat to push out
from behind the iron curtain, force the col
lapse of the remaining independent gov
ernments and seize control of the entire
continent.
Mr. Churchill has attached strong note
of urgency to his advocacy of this idea.
He wants to see western bloc brought
into being as swiftly as possible. Such
a bloc would embrace vast segment OF
free humanity, and its POLITICAL economic
and military potentials-revitalized with
the help of the European Recovery Pro-
gram and having at least the long-term
moral support of the United States-would
be tremendous enough to make the Krem-
lin think twice before undertaking any
new adventures Accordingly. in Mr..
Churchill's judgment the sooner 1t is or
ganized, the sooner there can be the kind
of showdown that will offer "the best
chance of preventing war" and OF coming
to "a settlement with the Soviet govern
ment before it is toe late"-before the
Russians themselves nave atomic weapons
and feel sufficiently confident to continue
on their peace-wrecking course.
Although there is much expert opinion
to the contrary, Mr.. Churchill considers 1t
entirely possible that the Soviet Union will
have such weapons in year or so. Hence
his emphasis on the need for speed in unit
ing Western Europe and demanding that
the Kremlin cooperate In reaching fair
and reasonable agreements to establish
genuine peace in the world. Presumably,
L. ;,,x ;,,I mould ho oil nod of
rigid and enforceable treaty commitments
on matters like ending direct or indirect
Red aggression and controlling the atom.
He has not spelled out just what would
happen in case the Russians Scoffed at the
showdown but he has nevertheless argued
convincingly for the idea that the chance
of getting them to agree now would be
better than when they have a stock of
their own Abombs
With the horrors of the last war still
fresh in everybody's mind Mr.. ChurchilIs
views make terribly bleak reading But
they are compellingly logical, and only the
ostrichlike will try to take refuge from
them. For it is true, as he says, that "the
present situation cannot last" and that
there are very grave dangers in letting
everything run on and pile up until some
thing happens and the matter passes all
of sudden out of your control" AS of
now, the world is drifting willy-nilly to-
ward armed conflict. Sooner or later-and
the sooner the better-the trend must be
checked and reversed or the explosion viii.
come.
The great question posed by Mr.. Church
i'll is whether the democracies-which are
usually slow moving and which must take
time to debate and vote before acting
can move together as fast as they must to
be safe In many ways, as far as showdowns
are concerned, tyrannies like the fourteen
man Soviet dictatorship have more than
a little edge on the free. They can strike
swiftly and without warning-a fact that
makes Mr.. Churchill's argument doubly
compelling.