Evening star., 1948-09-07
YaIta Pact Defended
By Byrnes; Says Reds
Made Mockery Of Il
BY the Asseeioted Press

addressing the American Bar Asso-
citation Convention, accused Russia
Of violating nearly all" the agree
ments concerning Eastern Europe.
But, he told the delegates, 'as
long as men confer with their prob
lens, even if their language is pro-
fame, there is always hope of agree
ment." He said America was united
in its opposition to aggression, but:
1T does not help us to move to-
ward more peaceful world to
speak or act in terms that might
give out the false impression that
we are only concerned with an all
out power struggle with Soviet
Russia
Says People Want No War.
Mr.. Byrnes said he did not agree
with people who contend I'VE can
not build one world but must have
two worlds. do not abandon
hope before this we have seen
governments change policies.
I'VE can be certain the people of
Russia, like the people of the United
States, do not want war"
Referring to acts before the wars
end. and specifically to the Yalta
agreement, Mr. Byrnes said:
There is nothing wrong with
this Yalta agreement-the trouble
was that the Soviet government
later made q mockery Of that
agreement"
He asserted the Soviets found
these war agreements such obstacles
that they had to violate nearly all
Of them" in pursuit Of their expan-
sion policies in Eastern Europe.
Doubts They Were Gifts.
It has been these violations, Mr..
Byrnes said, which have made up
the basis of the protests sent to
Moscow by the western powers.
If the agreements were conces-
sions or gifts by Churchill and
Roosevelt to the Soviets, it is rather
peculiar that the Soviets had to
violate them" he declared.
Mr.. Byrnes noted that except In
one European area today Soviet
control does not extend beyond the
lines its armies occupied" That
area. he explained, is the German
territory east of the Elbe which had
been assigned to the Russians at
Yalta.
mo one of our military chiefs
had any idea 'at the time of Yalta)
that we would reach Berlin before
the Soviets did, he said. Later,
when our troops withdrew to our
zone we were simply complying
with our agreement While pos
sibly our representatives., civilian
and military. should have spelled
out in more details our right of ac-
cess to Berlin, it is not true that
our present difficulties in Berlin are
due to the fact that our rights were
not more meticulously defined"
"Underestimated Patton"
The Yalta arrangement con-
corning Prague, Mr.. Byrnes con-
tinued. appears to have been ex-
clusively a military decision" 1t
was generally assumed" that
Prague would be reached first by
the Russians but I'VE underesti-
mated the prowess of Gen. Patton"
he said. The reason why the United
States complied with a Soviet mill
tary request not to move forward
toward Prague was ito avoid COL
lisions between American forces
from the West and Soviet forces
from the East" he explained.
The Ya1ra agreements" Mr.
Byrnes declared. must be appraised
in the context of the circumstances
under which they were made. For
example, there was the agreement
regarding Poland. 1t was not a
question of what we would let the
Russians do, but what we could get
the Russians to do"
Again, in conceding that major
postwar criticism has centered on
the Yalta agreements giving Russia
areas in the Far East, Mr.. Byrnes
said:
To be fair in passing upon the
wisdom of those agreements we
must consider the circumstances as
they were appraised by our military
leaders at the time and not the cir
cumstances as they developed after
the Nazi collapse
Mr.. Byrnes concluded with three
main suggested conditions for a
German peace treaty. They were
that Germany should be enabled to
develop peacetime industries but
should be kept demilitarized for at
least a generation: the Ruhr in
dustries should be supervised by
Germany's immediate neighbors,
and Russia should be allowed rep
arations from current German pro-
duction as compensation for fac
tories originally assigned to Russia
but later kept in Germany.
Although he admitted the agree
ments reached with Russia during
the war were not perfect" Mr..
Byrnes added:
"It is grotesque distortion to
picture these agreements on our
part as the naive action of President
Roosevelt trying to play the part of
Santa Claus"
A realistic conclusion. he argued
is that the war agreements gave
the Soviet Union very little that it
was not in a position to take with
out agreement.
Mr.. Byrnes insisted the United
States must continue a bipartisan
foreign policy and that the leaders
of the party out of power must be
advised before policies are deter
mined.
Our bipartisan policy is opposed
by the naive Mr.. Wallace" he said
1T is also opposed by the Commu-
nists who realize it prevents them
even In an election year from divid-
ing America, But that policy Is sup
ported by the overwhelming major
ity of Americans
| - l