Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1955-03-19
The Political Mill

Will Be Justified in End
Truth Rurely Does Harm,
And Finally Should PrevuiI
By Gould Lincoln
Publication of the Yalta Conference
papers did not just happen overnight
and out of clear sky. AS matter
of fact. an examination of the Senate
Appropriations Committee hearings on
the State, Justice and Treasury APP
preparation bills for 1858 and 1854 shows
definitely that the plans for their
publication were made long ago. And
also that the money was provided.
For many years. the state papers and
records of international conferences
have been prepared for publication and
published in an orderly manner. The
course, so far as the Yalta papers are
concerned, was the same. They were not
just hurried into print. The publica-
ton program, it develops, looked to
three categories-regular state papers,
special conference papers, and special
Chinese papers dealing with this coun-
trys discussions and contacts with
China in the 1940s), four-year pro-
gram. The precedence, in the special
conferences list, was given to the Malta
and Yalta Conferences. The Malta
Conference was exceedingly brief-par-
ticipated in only by President Franklin
D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill.
Roosevelt touched there on his way to
Yalta. The publication is still to come
of the Potsdam, Cairo, Teheran, and
other conferences. In due time will
come the publication of the papers
of the Washington Conferences, the
Casablanca Conference and Quebec.
How 1t Happened
Having been put into print, the ques-
ton arose as to when the Yalta papers
should be circulated and to whom. After
most objective and careful editing, the
Yalta papers were ready to be put out
last fall. Secretary of State Dulles did
not wish to put them out in the midst
of the 1854 congressional campaign.
Such a move would Immediately have
been dubbed partisan politics. The pres
sure from congressional circles, how
ever, to. have the publications released
has continued to mount Finally, the
Secretary of State, declaring he did not
believe the papers should be given gen.
eral circulation at this time. offered to
send copies of the document to leaders
in Congress, committee chairmen, etc.
The Democrats promptly rejected the
idea they should have these papers
marked confidential. Then came the
famous "leak," which forced gen.
eral publication.
Some Republicans in Congress have
seized upon the papers as valuable ma
terial for the 1856 political campaign.
Some Democrats have charged that the
Republican administration is engaged
in a political game. without regard to
President Eisenhower's pledge of BIZ
partisan policy in dealing with foreign
affairs. Some of the British have de-
nounced the Observation-Disclosures they
do not believe the remarks made by
Churchill regarding the Poles and by
Roosevelt regarding Hong Kong should
have been revealed. The chances are,
however, that when the dust has set
tied. the publication of the Yalta papers
after all, rarely does harm. In the end
it should prevail.
Nothing New
What was done at the Yalta Confer
ence and the agreements entered into
there have been known for q long time.
How these things were done and why
are more clearly revealed by the Yalta
papers. They afford, too, an official
record which has not hitherto been
available. They show, among other
things, how the late Stain was able
to gain a great deal from both Roose-
welt and Churchill in that International
game of diplomacy and war; that his
price for putting Soviet Russia into
the Pacific war was huge; that China
was sold down the river. Since these
things were done-and since it has long
been obvious that Stain took his gains
and refused to live up to the agree
mentS he made with Roosevelt and
Churchill at Yalta-it seems particu-
larry idle now to object to revelation
OF the details of the conference which
led UP to the agreements.
1t is fact that Secretary of State
Du4lCo 1ll1OiA MI. SIluTClllll Oh LIle
intention of publication of the Yalta
papers, and won from him a reluctant
agreement they should be published.
Mr.. Churchill's criticism, now, of the
publication is without good grace, par
ticularly as Mr.. Churchill himself has
published some six volumes of his rec
elections, containing many references
to and quotations from official records.
1t is not of record he requested permis-
sion from anyone to do so.
How long the State Department
might have been expected to hold onto
these papers. already in printed form,
without their leaking out for publica-
ton is"a guess. Some people seem to
believe they could have been held
definitely-which would not be prac-
tical, When the balance is struck, the
good deriving from the publication will
outweigh the ill-if there is any.