Evening star., 1949-10-04
The KremIin on Germany


Although 1t is full OF turgid gobbledegook
and makes for very dull reading, the
Kremlin's note on Germany offers another
good example Of the truth-butchering
Red propaganda technique. Addressed to
France, Britain and the United States,
what the note does, in effect, is to blame
the three Western governments for an
evil that stems directly from the Soviet
Unions own policy-a fact which the
Soviet Union undoubtedly knows.
The evil is simply this: That more than
four years after the total surrender Of the
Nazis, Germany is split in two and the
possibility of working out settlement for
it seems as remote as ever. Why? The
answer, according to the Kremlin, is that
France, Britain and the United States have
violated the Potsdam Agreement to unity
the country politically and economically.
In addition-and again according to the
Kremlin-they have violated other agree
ments and brought things to an 'imper-
missible" state by uniting their three zones
under the "so-called" Bonn Constitution
in order to form the West German Fed
eral Republic, "puppet" and "Hitlerite"
instrument aimed at promoting their
aggressive" and "imperialist" aims. Only
the Russians, say the Russians, have con-
sistently sought to end the partition and
rebuild Hitlers shattered Reich into q
happy, democratic, peace-loving" land.
This tune is so old, has been played SO
often, and Is so discredited by the clear
facts OF history that its replaying at this
stage would seem to add up to nothing
more significant than further evidence of
how the Soviets gre following the Nazi
propaganda dictum that If a colossal lie
is repeated frequently enough, people in
general will gradually come to accept 1t
as gospel truth. But in those parts of the
world where there is freedom of informa-
tion-and the area includes Western Ger
many-Moscow's threadbare distortions
are not likely to fool any literate adult.
The record is too clear. What it shows is
that ever since the drafting OF the Pots
dam Agreement, the Russians-by means
of their veto power in the quadripartite
control council and the Iron Curtain
around their zone of occupation-have
steadfastly blocked every effort to achieve
the countrys unification and negotiate an
honest and effective overall German
peace treaty.
!. Actually, the Kremlin's major objective
since We day has been to force the West
ern Powers to bow to Soviet termS-and
Soviet terms alone-as regards unifytng
and writing settlement for Germany.
To that end, with the veto, with the Iron
Curtain and with such dynamite-laden
measures as the Berlin blockade, the
Russians have done their best to stir up
German division and chaos Of a kind cal
culated to wear down Anglo-French- Amer
ican resolution. They have never sincerely
sought to work out genuine agreement.
Ali they have tried to do, In the worst kind
Of bad faith, is to breed conditions con-
ducive to their long-range ambition to
fasten a Communist regime on Germany,
make the country an obedient satellite,
and thus maneuver themselves into q
position to dominate all of Europe and
acquire strength enough to be towering
menace to the entire free Western world,
including America.
It is because Of this policy that the
Western Powers have helped to organize
the West German Republic. To have done
less would have been merely to abandon
free Europe to the naked threat of Soviet
domination. What the Kremlin's note
really objects to is that France, Britain
and the United States are countering that
threat by trying to make the best Of
decidedly bad situation. The situation,
needless to add. will remain bad just as
long as the Russians deliberately keep it
that way. They are the root cause of it.
It will not improve unless and until they
start showing good faith.