The Key West citizen., 1952-10-17
The World Today
By JANIS MARLoM
WASHINGTON R = The !,

1 udue Is ABOUT as unemOtl0nal
as any in the language, which i.
why, perhaps. nothing much ha.
been said about it in his presiden.
tial campaign although the cam
paign has been full of talk abou,
dealing with Russia.
And trade with Russia, or rather
the lack of it, is one of the major
weapons in the cold war, as W. Av-
erell Hartman, director of the Mu-
tual Security Agency, pointed out
in report this week. His organiz-
alton is successor to the old Mar
shall Plan.
The latter was created to give
economic help to Europe which,
had it remained flat and broke,
might have been taken over by
Russia without firing a shot.
1t might seem that, since this
country and its allies were in a
cold war with Russia, and both
sides were building up their arma-
ments which might be used any
day in a shooting war, all trade
would cease between the West and
Russia.
It might seem ridiculous that any
country allied with the U. s. or re-
crountry allied with the U. S. or re-
ceiving help from this country
would at the same time be trading
with Russia. But in his report Har-
riman said cutting off trade en-
tirely would harm our common de-
tense effort more than 1t harms the
potential aggressor.
He said other non-C Communist
countries receive from the Soviet
bloc commodities that are ex.
tremely valuable to their own de-
fense efforts and economic stability
on which their defense is based"
But while some kind Of trade
with Russia might be all right
trade in items that didn't help
Russia's war machine--this coun-
try had the problem Of being sure
Russia didn't get war materials
from other western sources.
So the U. S. had to work out ar
rangements with the countries get
ting American help TO control ship
ments to Russia. To be doubly sure
about it, Congress passed law
called the Battle Act-making 1t
mandatory for this country to shut
off any aid to country exporting
war goods to Russia.
This same law also said Ameri-
can help to any country should be
shut off--unless the president de-
cided otherwise--if it exported to
Russia materials of strategic value
like petroleum and certain kinds
of transportation equipment-that
could be used to produce war
goods.
Hartman said that for several
years the important free world ma
tons ''have refused without any
exception the shipment to the So
Wet bloc of arms, ammunition, i'm
plements Of war, or atomic energy
materials. /"
The Battle Act went into effect
last January. Harriman's report
was an explanation Of how the acf
has been carried out. Between jan
uary and July he said there were
only three cases of countries ship
ping forbidden goods to Russia.
One case involved equipment for
exploring for oil; another, a grind
ing machine; and the third, tank
err. But they were in the group
which permitted the President TO
use his own discretion about shut
ting off aid. For various reasons,
which Hartman explained at
length, the President decided not to
shut off American aid to the three
countries; The Netherlands, Italy,
and Denmark.
But this country and its allies
weren't able to draw up a list OF
items which shouldn't so to Russia
and stop there. The list Is under
steady examination and revision TO
meet changing situations involving
both the West and Russia.
And yesterday--as II telling this
country they could set along fine
in war production no matter what
we did about controlling trade with
then--the Russians said they could
convert their peacetime industry TO
= war basis in a short time and
turn out everything needed Tor
their Army and Navy.
In his report Hartman made L
clear this country didat expect 70
stop Russia's war production
since il has most Of the basic raw
material IL needs. Bus be said be
did think export controls might
si0w il up. AT least, the controls
snusf hein IL