Evening star., 1948-08-03
Danube Blues

The expected mas happened at Belgraoe.
From the very moment when Moscow ac-
cepted promptly the State Departments
circular proposal to the Great Powers sug-
gesting a meeting for regulating naviga-
ton on the river Danube, nearly all those
versed in Moscow's methods suspected un-
pleasant eventualities. A seemingly CO.
operative attitude by the Kremlin was so
Soviet diplomacy that 1t looked just too
good to be true.
The tip-off which justified these skeptics
was the appointment Of Andrei Vishinsky
as head of the imposing Soviet delegation
to the Belgrade conference. vishinsky is
the Kremlins favorite "hatchet-man"
whenever an ugly job has to be done,
whether 1t be purging Old Bolsheviks or
rolling the diplomatic waters. And ViShin-
sky at Belgrade lost no time in living up
to his reputation. With customary trucu'
lence he handled the representatives of
the three Western Powers-America Brit
ain and France-with humiliating brutality.
Master of the conference through his more
than two-thirds majority made up of the
Soviet Union and six satellite regimes, he
brusquely met Western objections to his
proposals with curt ultimatum either to
stay and agree or disagree and get out.
The plan of the Soviet bloc Is starkly
simple. 1t is that Danube navigation shall
be controlled by those states through which
the river flows, and that outsiders have
nothing to say in the matter. That is the
situation which has existed ever since
Soviet armies rolled across east-central
Europe more than three years ago into
Austria and to the southern border OF Ger
many. And this situation has been so ex-
plotted by the Soviet bloc that navigation
by others has been reduced almost to zero
by strangling regulations.
This is an entire reversal of the enlight-
ened arrangement hitherto prevailing for
almost century, whereby navigation on
the Danube was open on equal terms to
the commerce of all nations. The eco
nomic advantages were incalculable. This
greatest Of European rivers, comparable to
our Mississippi, thereby fulfilled its nat
ural role as vital artery of trade. 1t was
to reinstate this international status and
promote Europe's economic recovery that
our Government labored tirelessly for a
return to traditional practice Indeed,
largely through our efforts, freedom of
Danube navigation was indorsed in prin-
ciple by the Council of Foreign Ministers,
including Soviet Russia, in December, 1946,
and was likewise specifically written into
the peace treaties concluded with Bulgaria,
Hungary and Romania.
But such international pledges do not
bother Moscow and its satellites So the
Belgrade conference is summariy tearing
up those diplomatic scraps of paper and
drawing up new convention in complete
disregard of the principle Of free Danube
navigation. And there seems to be nothing
practicable that the Western Powers can
do about 1t beyond sterile protests "for the
record"
From all this, two lessons would seem to
emerge. One is another illustration of the
bitter truth that Moscow does not keep it's
diplomatic commitments one moment
longer than 1t wants to. The other Is that
attempts at piecemeal settlements of Spe-
cific problems are vain, so long as an over
all agreement between East and West is
not attained. Unless and until the basic
antagonism between East and West is re-
solved, negotiations between them will &C
complish nothing real or permanent. Such
negotiations may, Of course, temporarily
ease specific tensions and gain time where
time is beneficial. But to expect more than
that, under existing circumstances, will be
to nourish illusions and court eventual dis
illusionment.