Evening star., 1951-08-14
Son Francisco and the KremIin

In accepting our American invitation to
take part in next months San Francisco Con-
ference on the Japanese peace treaty, the Krem-
lin has acted in way that calls for anything
but loud cheers. For the move-which does not
come entirely as surprise to the State De-
partment-almost certainly means that Andrei
Gromyko and his Soviet delegation, far from
cooperating to make the meeting success,
will do whatever they can to sabotage it by
throwing 1t into an uproar with violent propa-
ganda speeches and impossible demands
This suspicious view of Soviet intentions
conceivably may be proved wrong by events.
However. to put it mildly, the record strongly
indicates, as Secretary Acheson declared the
other day. that the men of the Kremlin would
like nothing better than to wreck the confer
ence or at least divide its dozens of participants
to such an extent that it will end on note
of wide dssenson and virtual failure. Certainly,
considering their past attitude toward the Jap
anese draft treaty sponsored jointly by Britain
and the United States, it seems unlikely in the
extreme that their conduct at San Francisco
will be conciatory or reasonable in the slightest
degree.
After all, since VI day, the Soviet record
on this matter has been the record of power
intent upon blocking a sound settlement for
an indefinite period of time. Just as in the case
of Austria and Germany, the Russian leaders
do not want Japanese treaty at this juncture
no treaty. that Is, except one written on their
own terms in order to promote their long-range,
dominance-seeking ambitions at the expense
of the entire free world. That is why they have
been repeatedly assaling the draft document
now scheduled for signing at San Francisco.
That is why they have been pugnaciously in
sisting that they and the Chinese Communists
through Big Four or Big Five conference
must have a major voice in the proceed
ngs, a voice with the right to veto everything
agreed upon by the overwhelming majority of
nations still technically at war with the
Tokyo government.
Against such a background, the Soviet ac-
ceptance of the invitation to San Francisco
can hardly be interpreted as good sign. What
the men of the Kremlin have wanted all along
is treaty designed to leave Japan as an
ASiatic vacuum of power vulnerable to SUBJ
version aggression and eventual Red domina-
ton. To that end, the Gromyko delegation
probably will use the conference to demand
that the proposed settlement be scrapped as an
instrument of warmongering American impe
rialistS and that a new one be drafted with
the vetowielding participation Of Red China
and Russia. In addition, there is likely to be
lot of wedged driving propaganda aimed at
dssuading India and as many other countries
as possible from signing the present draft.
In one form or another, fireworks of this
sort will certainly materialze at San Francisco
unless the Russians fiabbergast everybody by
announcing basic change in past Soviet policy
But such a change seems about as improbable
as anything could be. What must be expected,
instead, is another display of trouble-making
obstructionism The free nations, even though
some of them are not too happy about certain
features of the proposed treaty, oughtto be pre-
pared accordingly. They should hold fast to-
gether against every attempt to divide them. Not
to do so would be to play directly into the
Kremlins hands