Evening star., 1954-02-21
Just as in Stains Day

Although 1t has passed into history without
having agreed on anything but the unpromising
idea of dealing with Korea and Indo- China at
a special April get-together in Geneva. the
Berlin Conference has been q notable success
in at least one negative respect: 1t has DEMON
strated beyond doubt. despite some dovelike
noises from the Kremlin, that Soviet policy has
not undergone the slightest change for the
better since Stalin's death
Certainly, as Secretary of State Dulles has
said it Is not because Of a lack Of diplomatic
or negotiating skils that the foreign ministers
of the Big Four have made no headway what
ever toward agreement on Germany and Austria.
They have failed in that sense solely because of
a simple and bleak fact-namely, the fact that
the men of the Kremlin are still so afraid Of
the effects of freedom on their own internal
tyranny, and on their restive satellite empire,
that they are every bit as determined now as
in the days of Stain to hold on to all their
ill-gotten gains and to keep on throtting liberty
wherever they can. In Mr.. Dulles words, "They
are not willing to let go their grip anywhere,
and they would like to expand it If they could"
All this has been clearly and almost frankly
shown by Foreign Minister Mootov's Berlin
proposals adamantly rejecting the Vests efforts
to reunify the German nation on a genuinely
Independent basis and to persuade the Soviet
Union to honor at long last, its solemn 1943
pledge to restore full sovereignty to Austria.
What the Kremlin has asked for, instead is
the following: % Continued Austrian occupa-
ton for period of indefinite duration; (2) the
creation OF "neutralized" Germany so organ
lied as to insure its eventual conversion into
Red satellite; t3) the breakup of Anglo-French-
American unity; "a the dissolution of the
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (5) the
Scrapping of the projected European Defense
Community and its internationalized army in
which the Germans are supposed to participate,
and (6) 50-year pact under which-with the
United States altogether withdrawn from the
picture-the free countries of Europe would
abandon such present interallied safety ar
rangements as NATO in exchange for paper
guarantees from Moscow within a so-called
collective security system completely dominated
by the Russians.
In sum, through Mr.. Molotov, the Kremlin
has made it abundaptly clear that the Soviet
objective is exactly the same today as under
Stain Shorn of its propaganda wrappings the
objective is to attain European and global
domination by maneuvering the free nations
into committing suicide-into wrecking their
unity, tearing down their defenses and reduc-
ing themselves to helplessneSs against one-at-
a-time conquest through subverSon or naked
aggression. Accordingly, to the extent that it
has thrown white light on all this, the Berlin
conference may be viewed as having been a
most useful one for the West For it has shown
that the Communist world threat is still as
dangerous as ever-a portentous fact that must
surely intensity the resolve of the Atlantic
Community to hold fast together in building
up its strength.
Significantly enough, in their special COM
munique on the Berlin Conference. the foreign
ministers of the Western Big Three have been
at pains to emphasize such a resolve by de-
claring that France, Britain and the United
States "do not intend to be detected from their
efforts to develop the system of defense on
which their survival depends" The forth
coming Geneva meeting may have the effect,
as some fear, of causing the French to delay
further in ratifying the EDO treaty. but Mr..
Molotov has made the menacing Soviet aim so
obvious that it is hard to see how any free
country-with its eyes open-can neglect it's
arms or fail to do everything possible for
interallied security.