Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-11-23

The depth to which world opinion
has been aroused by Russian cruelty in
Hungary has been displayed dramati-
cally in the latest votes by the United
Nations General Assembly. BY division
OF 81 to 8, the Assembly called upon the
Communist puppet government at Buda-
pest to admit U. N. observers for the
purpose of determining the truth of the
appalling stories of ruthless Russian
military suppression of the Hungarian
fight for freedom. BY SIS to 10, the Assem-
bly, approved an even Sterner resolution
condemning the Soviet government and
the present Hungarian authorities for
the mass deportation of Hungarians.
presumably to the slave labor camps of
Siberia And by SO to 4, the U. N. body
called upon humanitarian governments
and private organizations to join in a
great relief effort for care and resettle-
ment of the thousands of Hungarian
refugees. In adopting this final proposal.
the Assembly brushed aside almost con-
temptuouSly a series of weakening
amendments offered by the Hungarian
Observation-Disclosures one appealing to
S~~S
1t was not, however, so much the
overwhelming size of these votes that
should give pause to the cynical men in
the Kremlin and to those who still do
their bidding in the satellite countries.
The MoScoW-led bloc has had long expert
ence at being in the numerical minority
before the bar of world opinion, but it
has safely commanded both an enforced
Loyalty" from its stooges and compla-
cent-seeming 'neutraliSm" from certain
Asiatic and African quarters Both of
these showed clear signs of crumbling
before the onslaught of vivid evidence
that the Kremlin'S alternative to freedom
is death or slavery.
1t was, for example, the often neu-
trallSt Asiatic trio of India, Indonesia
and Ceylon-who had ASSOCIATED them
selves from earlier efforts to get U. N.
observers into Hungary-that sponsored
the latest resolution on the subject. And
1t was midas KriShna Menon, whose acid
voice so frequently has been raised in
support of Soviet causes, who led this
successful fight. Perhaps it was even
more startling to the Moscow delegation
when Poland, never before a defector
from the Soviet bloc in the U. NJ, abb
stained-at least weakening the Commu-
mist front against any outside flrSt-hand
observation of events behind the Iron
Curtain. YugoSlavia likewise abStained
on this resolution. Both Poland and
YugoSlavia rejoined the Soviet bloc in
voting against the deportation resolution,
while the Asian-African group returned
to its usual practice of abStaining. There
were indications, however, that the atti-
tude here was governed more by feeling
that admission of the U. N. observers was
a more important first step than by any
acceptance of Russian Hungarian denials
that wholesale arrests and deportations
have been taking place.
These Soviet Setbacks do not, of
course, assure that the u Ms requests
will be honored. Thus far there have been
no signs that either Moscow or Budapest
intends to open the curtain" for OBJ
servers or modify the behavior behind
it. Nevertheless, the Kremlin has been
given notice that even within its safest
sphere Of influence there can be a limit
for It's code of inhumanity.