Evening star., 1955-05-16
Thow and Opportunity


It would be naive and wiShful to the
point Of folly for anybody to suppose that
a good peace is just around the corner.
Nevertheless, there can be no doubt that
recent international developmentS-cli-
NAKED by yesterdays signing of the Aus
trian independence treaty and by Soviet
Foreign Minister Molotov's acceptance Of
the Western proposal for Big Four meet
ing sat the SUNNI" represent highly
significant change in the climate of the
cold war. The ice is still with us. of course,
but it seems very definitely to have soft
ened here and there-and even to have
broken up in some spots-as If yielding to
sudden spring thaw
The best evidence of this is the fact
that the Kremlin, after almost decade
of nay-saying and bad faith, has at last
joined France, Britain and the United
States in restoring to the Austrian people
the freedom and sovereignty pledged to
them in the Moscow Declaration of 1943.
True enough, there is reason to believe
that the Russians have made this about
face with the hope of exploiting it as an
effective propaganda weapon against arm
ing the Bonn Republic as member Of the
NOIGIl AtlNIlGlC Treaty. OlSdIL1A1tAVaI-
propaganda designed to entice the West
Germans into accepting "neutralized"
status in exchange for a Vienna like treaty
that would reunify their partitioned coup-
try but leave it acutely vulnerable to an
eventual Communist coup.
However, although they can be
counted upon to make the most of such
propaganda, it may be doubted that the
men of the Krenlin are banking heavily
on it or that they have signed the Austrian
treaty simply because they expect (which
would be an unrealistic expectation) that
it will keep West Germany from becoming
an armed NATO ally. Actually-and let
none Of us be too cynical or disbeleving
about the possibility-the truth of the
situation may well be that they have taken
this step because they are genuinely
anxious to show that they want to ease
international tensions and arrive at
workable live-and-let-live understanding
with the West After all, they have their
domestic problems extremely serious and
even critical problems especially in agri-
culture-and It is not inconceivable that
they need an abatement of the cold war.
Nor is the Austrian treaty the only
indication of this possibility. There have
been numerous additional signs along the
same line. One of these is the Kremlin's
latest disarmament plan-still very sus-
pect thing but nonetheless change for
the better from the past Soviet position.
Similarly, although the West must eye 1T
with caution, hopeful meanings can be
read into the extraordinary Soviet decision
to send Premier Bulganin and other big
wigs to Belgrade to smoke peace pipe
with Marshal Tito Of Yugoslavia. Finally,
and perhaps not the least important of all
recent developments in the world, Red
China appears to have pulled in its horns
regarding Fornlosa--a fact suggesting that
Moscow has persuaded Peiping against
risking a major war with the United
States
All this may be illusion. But it is diff
f1cu1t to escape the feeling, in these days of
rather feverish diplomatic activity on both
sides Of the Iron Curtain, that the cold
war has in fact reached stage of encour-
aging thaw. It is difficult, too, not to be-
lieve that the Western powers-if they
bargain firmly from the position of
strength that is really theirs, particularly
with the accretion of free Germany's
strength within NATO-can work out
sound modus vivendi with the Communist
world