FRANCE AND ITALY WIN TIME TO FIND BALANCE

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25365, 12 December 1947, Page 6

FRANCE AND ITALY WIN TIME TO FIND BALANCE

interim aid

London, December 9.—-On Mondey, December Lthe United States Senate adopted by an overwhelming majorire th? Interim Aid Bill giving immediate help to France, tria at a cost of nearly dollars or £150,000,000 sterling. This prelude to the larger Marshall Plan coincides with,, and forms part of, a dramatic phase in the situation of West ern Europe. The Interim Aid Bill « intended to save France, Italy, and Austria from economic and B ° cia * loose during the winter and. spring. Simultaneously, the Communirt parties in France and Italy have Been striving to bring on a oolIa P?? create revolutionary conditions in those countries before s s t ?F ,m ,._Slr from the United States and the larger Marshall Plan can strengthen Western Europe against Communist domination. Coincidence? It is a singular circumstance that outbreaks ot disorder in Fi-ance and Italy became most intense at the very moment when the four Foreign Ministers ot the Great Powers were mwb ing in London to seek agreement upon a peace settlement with Germany. This circumstance is jnot everywhere regarded as entirely accidental! It has given rise to a supposition —which cannot be more than a supposition-that if the French and Italian Communist parties could have succeeded in overthrowing the nonCammunist governments in Pans ana Rome, Mr Molotov might.have been more favourably placed in <ta a “”= with his colleagues of . the United States, France, and Britain. The argument runs that if Communism could triumph in France and Italy, the prospect of organising even Western Germany on non-Communist democratic lines would be fainter than it now seems likely to be. Some colour may be lent to this argument by the determined opposition of Soviet Russia to the Marshall Plan for European recovery. It is indeed obvious that a complete breakdown of democratic government in France and Italy must have thwarted the application of the United States policy both for interim aid and for promoting more general European recovery under the Marshall Plan. Beneath the surface, if not oq the surface, the present phase of tne situation in Western Europe is therefore highly dramatic.

Reflection . Though it cannot yet be said that Biis phase will end with the defeat of ommunist tactics, the success of the French and Italian Governments in withstanding the wave of strikes, riots, and disorders which threatened to overthrow them is foreshadowed. In France, one alternative to the Schuman Cabinet might be a strong swing of public feeling toward General de Gaulle’s National Rally—an alternative which many, perhaps most, Frenchmen would prefer to avoid. Should it occur, it would be a direct result of Communist violence, but not a result which foreign friends of France might welcome. If only for this reason, it is widely hoped that the moderate Catholic Party, which the Schuman Cabinet mainly represents,

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may succeed in restoring. order without the risk of political reaction, into which General de Gaulle’s National Rally might drive, even against its I'ader’s wish. For this reason, too, the Schuman Cabinet enjoys support from the French Socialists and Radicals, who desire to see individual freedom preserved. In Italy, on the other hand, the de Gasperi Administration, which, like the Schuman Cabinet in France, is based on the moderate Catholic Party, finds itself by moderate Socialists and Liberals who dislike de Gasperi's association with the Vatican. Whereas anti-clericalism has almost ceased to be a political force in France, it induces many non-Communist Italians to withhold support from the anti-Communist Italian Government, Under these conditions, the adoption of the Interim Aid Bill by the United States Senate and the prospect of wider help from the Marshall Plan mav acquire decisive importance. The wrecking tactics of the Communist parties run counter to the urgent economic needs of France and Italv alike. Whatever their political preferences might be in other circumstances, the French and Italian masses seem unlikely to sacrifice the advantage of material aid from the United States at a time when distress and want are grim realities. Besides, if the winter and spring can be tided over, thanta to help from the United States, time mav be gained for public opinion to be moulded by more sober estimates Of other realities. The present dramatic phase might give place to a calmer period of political reflection. The Surviving Ideal Such reflection might well lead to a fuller appreciation of the value of de. mocratic freedom and of individual liberties.-The Italian people have not quite forgotten the principles that inspired the leaders ot the great Italian Risorgimento in the nineteenth ceyitury. In France attachment to individual freedom is still strong, except among Communists. This is why se many Frenchmen look askance at the dictatorial reactions that are ascribed to General de Gaulle. Even stronger is their dislike of a dictatorship of the proletariat, which the Communists would fain establish. This dislike is siiared by the French Socialists, who remember the emphatic statement of Lenin in 1921 to the Spanish Socialist Leader, Fernando de }os Rios, who inquired whether the dictatorship of the proletariat would not one day give Elace to a system of personal freedom. enin answered: ’ The Bolsheviks have never spoken of freedom, but of a dictatorship of the proletariat, which is a- minority in Russia: and they will continue to do so until the rest of the community submits to the economic conditions of Communism." Lenin’s statement remains true of Russia and of most, if not all. her subordinate States in Eastern Europe. Communist parties desire that it should be true also of France and Italy. But I think that the French and Italian masses will not easily be persuaded to accept Lenin's doctrine for themselves. The Communist wave of violence may fall to carry all before it. thanks in part to the timely interim aid from the United States.