Evening star., 1950-12-24
Prosperous Christmas
For Europe CIouded
By Worry About War.
BY the Associated Press

LONDON. Dec. 24.-War worries
tempered the Joyful anticipation
In most European homes tonight
of the most prosperous Christmas
in a decade.
While carolers sang of good will
among men, many persons talked
of Korea and the Kremlin. and
how far you have to be from a
falling atom bomb to survive.
Broadcasting from the Vatican
Pope Plus II observed in his an
nual Christmas message that "the
most urgent problem is that OF
the internal peace of each
people"
THE real danger to interna-
tional. as well as national peace
he went on. "is the presence OF
men who are bereft of this Chris
tian sense; some have been de-
ceived in the past; others are
frantically bent on attaining some
Utopia in the future; in every
case they are dissatisfied with the
present"
In Europe, the extent to which
the fear of war encroached on
the Christmas spirit seemed
marked in Czechoslovakia. West
Germany. and the Netherlands
1t lay below the surface in Brit
ain, France. and Italy.
A London Daily Express edi-
torialist wrote:
"It is a Christmas for ponder
ing"
Many Determined To Be Gay.
Yet while there was peace, many
were determined to be gay. Some
reflected the attitude: Let to-
morrow look after its own trou-
bles." Holiday business doomed
to new highs in most Western
European countries. despite soar
ing prices. In West Germany
merchants said shoppers bought
more because of a feeling that
there is no use saving money
with war so threatening.
The Christmas dinner turkey
cost $1.05 a pound in England
Czechoslovak housewives paid al
most $1.20 a pound for chicken
and $3.50 a pound for pork.
Imitation nipped the holiday
spread in the Netherlands, where
the Dutch speak openly of pos
sible prospect of having to share
the fiat with Ivan Ivanovich."
But there were no signs OF
austerity in Rome and Paris, even
though prices were up. The
French had their biggest Christ
mas spending spree since 1885
with all the food. drink, toys, and
other goods they could afford.
Britons thronged travel facili-
ties at home and across the Eng
lish Channel to the French and
Swiss winter resorts. A towering
fir tree, gift of the Norwegians
twinkled alight in London's Ira
falgar Square.
Big hearted. open handed
Americans in West Germany made
it a happy holiday for orphans.
the poor, and those still in dis
placed persons camps. Accounts
indicated it was a more cheerful
Christmas in West than in East
Germany, where the Communists
tried to steam up a holiday over
Soviet Prime Minister Stalin's
list birthday last Thursday.
Anti Christmas in Balkans.
In Hungary and Bulgaria the
Communists rammed still harder
their anti Christmas theology, with
the Bulgarian regime summoning
a special National Assembly ses-
sion for Christmas Day.
1t wasn't much easier in Premier
Marshall Tito's Communist but
anti-Soviet Yugoslavia, which is
squeezed by crop failures and a
Cominform economic boycott. The
United States relief program is
Just getting started there. The
Belrade regime, frowning on the
Catholic and Orthodox Christ
masses. is enticing youngsters with
parties on DAY of Children's
JOY" January /.
Grandfather Frost" the Rus
sian counterpart of Santa Claus,
makes his rounds in the Soviet
Union New Years eve.
In the Holy Land, Arab Jordan
and Israeli troops opened the his
toric pilgrimage road from Jeru-
salem to Bethlehem. More than
300 Christian clergy, nuns, and
diplomatic, personnel were per-
mitted over this route to attend
miNght mass in the Church OF
the Nativity.