Evening star., 1953-05-26
Their Latest in Provdd

Their Latest in Pr0vd0
Speaking once again through a temperately
worded front-page editorial in Pravda, the
poSt-Stalin men of the Kremlin have reaf6rmed
that they are ready in all seriousness and in
all conscience to examine any proposals directed
at securing peace and the widest economic and
cultural connections between states" However,
despite the seeming sincerity of their tone, they
have qualified this declaration with statements
strongly suggesting that it is sheer wishfulness
to expect them to depart baSically from the
policies that the Soviet Union has been follow
ing ever since the end of the Second World War.
Thus, while indorsing Prime Minister
ChurchilPs recent call for an early meeting
of the great powers as a step toward easing
international tensions on a piecemeal basis,
the Malenkov- Beria- -Molotov regime has made
clear through Pravda that it is not likely to
heed President Eisenhower's appeal for concrete
evidence, in the form of peaceful Soviet Deeds
demonstrating the good faith of peaceful Soviet
words. Apparently the men of the Kremlin
have no intention of supplying such evidence
at this time At any rate, besides blaming the
United States for the failure so far to arrive
at Korean truce, they have indicated that
they will continue to block an Austrian treaty.
and in separate note they have rejected an
invitation to discuss the subject at new con-
ference in London. With typical mendacity,
even though without their usual invective, they
have again tried to make 1t appear that the
Western big Three" not they, are responsible
for the stalemate on Austria.
Similarly, the Pravda editorial leaves little
room for doubt that Premier Malenkov and his
top colleagues intend to hold fast to the sub
stance of the German policy followed by the
Kremlin under Stain. That is to say, they seem
determined to insist on unifying Germany in
keeping with Soviet terms, and Soviet terms
Only-termS that would pave the way for con-
verting the entire country into another Red
satellite. Further, Judging from Pravda's words
Russia's new leaders still adhere to the Stalinist
line in such other matters as the following:
CD Active support of lever growing national
and national liberation movements" through
out the globe-meaning Communist subversion
and aggression of the type seen in Indo-C China
and (2) continuing efforts to disintegrate the
free worlds defenses by driving wedges between
the United States and like-minded nations-a
program involving measures to intensity inter-
allied economic difficulties, propagandize on
any American move restricting trade and ag-
gravate political differences between ourselves
and the status of China.
The men of the Kremlin have scarcely
bothered to disguise their desire to stir up as
much of this dissension as possible. Indeed
they have spoken out as If President Eisenhower
were guilty of some kind of villainy for striving
to promote inter allied harmony by arranging
for next months meeting with Prime Minister
Churchill and the Premier of France-a meet
ing designed, among other things, to assess the
feasibility of a conference with Russia. Thus
as Pravda describes it, the Bermuda project is
bad because it promises to lessen Anglo-French-
American differences in way that mot only
does not contribute to easing the international
situation, but on the contrary, it can bring
about further heightening of the tension" In
other words, the Malenkov regime seems to feel
that Big Four get-together will be hard put
to succeed unless the representatives of our
Side-the big Three"-go to it disagreeing
sharply with each other.
OF course, despite this remarkable view, it
may be that Russia's rulers really want to work
out-"in all seriousness and in all conscience
acceptable understandings calculated to i'm
prove the world situation. But their latest piece
in Pravda, although it does not slam the door
on such possibility, is something less than
altogether encouraging. Certainly, If they keep
on torpedoing an Austrian settlement and If
a Korean truce fails to materialize, an Anglo
rench-American meeting with them will hold
out virtually no promise of yielding good fruit
rather than bad.