Evening star., 1948-10-12
Not to Be Borquined With

In insisting that Russia lit the Berlln
blockade as precondition to any further
four power talks on either the former
German capital or Germany as whole,
France, Britain and the United States have
made clear that they are holding fast to
their original position of refusing to nego-
tiate under duress.
This restatement of policy has been made
in response to a proposal advanced by
Argentina-with the support of five other
neutral" members of the United Nations
Security Council-to ease the East-WeSt
crisis with an agreement simultaneously
ending the blockade and convening the
Big Four Foreign Ministers in a new con-
ference on the overall German problem.
The Anglo French American position Is
not hard to understand. Even If Moscow
agreed to the Argentine proposal, the three
Western Powers could hardly 60 along
with it. For the blockade is a pistol held
against their heads, and as long as it Is
held there, they cannot consent to nego-
iate with Russia without seeming to yield
to force. Their stand is at once simple
and clear: There can be no Big Four
negotiations unless the Kremlin first drops
the pistol; meanwhile, it is up to the
Security Council to take whatever meas
ures it can-mostly moral-to deal with
this criminal threat to the peace of the
world.
In other words, France, Britain and the
United States do not propose to bargain
on this issue. The principle involved is
too fundamental. The blockade is viola
ton OF solemn agreements; it does
violence to the basic tenets of the U. N.
Charter; 1t is coercion of totally illegal,
ugly and explosive kind; If the Western
Powers dickered with the Kremlin regard
ing 1t and promised to do certain things
In exchange for lifting Of the siege, they
would be bowling to outlawry and demon
strating, in effect, an abject willingness to
tolerate the strong-arm methods of short
of-war aggression against the West.
Needless to say, if France Britain and
the United States thus bargained away
principle, a new Four Power conference
on the German problem would be unlikely
to yield good fruit In the best of cir
cumstances, given continued Soviet in
sistence on a voice In controlling the
Ruhr's production, plus continued Soviet
effort to create a Communication
central government, a decent and~safe
settlement for Germany would be ex-
tremely difficult to achieve. It would be
more difficult still-indeed, the whole
project would be futile-h the three West
ern Powers surrendered to force by agree
ing to negotiate In order to buy of the
Berlin blockade.
Actually, there can be no sound German
settlement and no sound peace anywhere
In the world unless Russian policy under
goes a basic change for the better-a
change that will supplant obstructionism
and aggression with honest cooperation
Such change is not now in sight, nor
Will there be any reason to look for it
until we have concrete evidence-like the
lifting OF the blockade-that the Stain
dictatorship has lost its appetite for con-
quest and global dominance. In the mean
time, for the sake of survival the free
nations. meeting duress head-on, must
spare no effort to arm themselves as
formidably as these dangerous days require.