Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-04-22
With Honest Hearts,?

III W0roS may be taken at race value,
some encouragement can be found In
certain of the remarks that Nikita
KhruShchev has made in Britain during
the past few days. This is so because
the remarks suggest, more strongly than
ever before, that the men of the Kremlin
have educated themselves to full aware
ness of the appalling danger inherent in
war in the atomic-hydrogen age.
In the past, most of Russia's leaders
have tended to minimize that danger But
now-with even greater emphasis than
in his speech to the recent Communist
Party Congress In MoScow-Mr. Khrush-
chev has indicated that they have seen
enough Of their own A-weapons and H
bombs to realize that the use of such
deStroyerS in an about armed conflict
could be as catastrophe for the USSR as
for the United States, Britain or any
other allied Western land. And the hope
full thing about this realization is that it
conceivably may have sobered them into
sincerely desiring to establish a good
peace with the free world.
Mr. Khrushchev, at any rate, has
spoken out most soberly on the subject
to the British. AS he has put it, eve
have tested the hydrogen weapon; you
are preparing to test it. Both sides know
the power of this weapon. t.. Now, as a
result of the development of science, war
can bring no good to either one side or
the other. 1t can only bring tremendous
destruction" And with that fact in mind,
emphasizing that armed conflict cannot
solve EaSt-West differences, he has once
again declared that the sole road for men
and nations to follow is the road of
peaceful coeXistence"-a road on which
zone must live not only with the neigh
bors one chooses but with the ones God
sends"
In saying this, moreover, Mr.. KhruSh-
chev has made special point of telling
everybody that he and Premier Bulganin
have arrived in Britain with honest
hearts earnestly resolved to work hard
for friendship and peace throughout the
world, and not to try to do such things
as undermine the Anglo-American part
nerShip or spread subversive Communist
propaganda. These are fine words, and
it need hardly be added, of course, that
there will be ample opportunity to test
their true meaning and sincerity during
the talks now going on between the Soviet
leaders and the British on the Arab
Israeli crisis and other issues of vital
import.
Certainly, If Mr.. KhruShchev and
Marshal Bulganin have actually Travelled
to Britain with honest hearts," they
should be ready and willing to become
party to firm agreements designed to
eliminate all threats like that prevailing
in the Middle East. Mr.. KhruShchev's
comment on the utter unproftability of
an atomic-hydrogen war raises the hope
that the Kremlin may in fact be prepared
to act affirmatively. But the hope is still
based chiefly on words. and it cannot
mean much unless or until there are con-
crete Soviet deeds of a sort that would
promote real progress toward an &C
ceptable form of peaceful coexistence."
; Meanwhile, pending the advent of
such deeds, the, United States Britain
and all like minded nations must be on
guard. For there is very real possibility
if not a probability-that the new soft
Worded Soviet line Is calculated to be-
guile the free world into diSSolving its
defensive alliances as prelude to peace
full coexistence" of a kind in which the
Red totalitarianS would eventually be-
come dominant everywhere. That is the
great present danger before lis, and we
cannot ignore it without gravely imperil-
ing ourselves.