Evening star., 1949-10-30
Moral Pressure on Russia

The other day, when it dealt with the
question of human rights in Romania,
Hungary and Bulgaria, the United Nations
General Assembly did not specifically con-
denim the three Soviet satellites. BY in
direction, however, it made clear that it
thought i'll of them and that moral judg-
ment against them may yet be forth
coming.
Thus, with only the five states of the
Soviet bloc dissenting, and with seven
countries Gncluding Yugoslavia) abstain
ing, forty-seven members Of the Assembly
have voted to declare their increased
concern" over the issue and to ask the
International Court of Justice to rule on
certain legal technicalities involved in it.
Moreover. pending the courts ruling, the
question is to be kept alive on the agenda,
which means that it will be taken up
again at the Assemblys session next year.
OF course, whatever may be the courts
opinion as to technicalities, two facts are
clear and indisputable: % That Romania,
Hungary and Bulgaria, as Hitler's defeated
allies, have signed peace treaties with
Russia, Britain and the United States
solemnly pledging them to guarantee
fundamental human rights and freedoms
to the Romanian, Hungarian and Bull
garian peoples; and (2) that almost as
soon as this pledge had been made, the
Communist regimes in control of the
satellite trio Systematically and ruthlessly
embarked on campaign OF terror and
oppression to erase the last traces of those
rights and freedoms.
In an effort to bring the three to an
accounting, Britain and the United States,
after long series of warning notes, earlier
this year invoked the enforcement clauses
of the peace treaties. The clauses provide
for the setting up Of Anglo-American-
Russian commissions to make the Offend
ing satellites live up to their obligation.
But the Soviet Union-which of course is
directly responsible for what its puppets
have been doing in Romania, Hungary and
Bulgaria-has fatty refused to take part
in such a procedure against them. This
Is only natural Being their master and
the real author of their tyrannical policy,
how could the Kremlin act against them
without acting against itself?
So, Russia having thus thrown monkey
wrench into the enforcement machinery
OF the peace treaties, and the West having
then carried the issue to the General As
sembly, the United Nations now has the
problem of figuring out measures to in
vestigate and act upon the charges against
the three satellites. The Assemblys course
will be governed by the advisory ruling
it has asked from the International Court.
II some new commission procedure is set
up, that procedure will almost certainly
be boycotted by both the Kremlin and the
accused. In that case, presumably, vote
OF moral condemnation will follow.
1t is true that such condemnation will
not undo the evil already done in Romania,
Hungary, Bulgaria and every other satellite
land But at least 1t will have the three
fold virtue Of keeping the historical record
straight, holding up the crime for the
whole world to see, and putting the Soviet
empire on the defensive. Moral pressure
OF this sort has power all its own 1t is
not empty or meaningless. The fact that
the Kremlin fights against it so bitterly is
proof enough of that. No country, no
matter how strong, can afford to be placed
outside the pale.