The Evening Star MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1946. PLAIN SPEAKING.

Evening Star, Issue 25708, 4 February 1946, Page 4

The Evening Star MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1946. PLAIN SPEAKING.

Britain's Foreign Secretary, Mr Ernest Bevin, certainly talked plain English to the Security Council in his reply to Russian suggestions of sinister motives, also dangers to peace, attending British intervention in Greece. Probably the Russians were never very serious over the charges. They might prefer that British forces should be out of Greece and the Earn party, consisting largely of Communists, left to establish its own government by the strong hand, but it is improbable that they would ever have brought the matter before tho Council except as a set-off to complaints of their own influence in Azerbaijan. It was much more a repetition of allegations than a case which M. Vyshinsky produced before the high tribunal, and his assertion that British troops were being used as a* bulwark by Royalist and Fascist elements supporting the Government appeared singularly unconvincing when lie added that ho "would not like to speak at any length about the Greek Government while much of the circumstances was still in the dark." If they have been in the dark to Russia that was by her own choice, because she was invited by Great Britain to take part in the work of maintaining. order in Greece and holding the ring for free elections, and refused. Nor is it at all surprising that the Greeks should have required, and should still require, assistance in those tasks, when the violence they are accustomed to impart into political dissensions and their recent history, made up largely of a succession of dictatorships between two wars, are recalled.

Certainly it has not been for long that Russia's concern about Greece has been acute. Mr Bevin recalled how, somewhat unexpectedly, tho matter was to have been discussed at the latest Moscow Conference of tho Big Three, and, after a full explanation of British proceedings which he gave to M. Molotov, that statesman had it withdrawn from the agenda. There should be no room for argument to-day when it is amply clear that the Athens Government asked for British help to prevent bloodshed, and needs it still. M. Vyshinsky must have felt the inadequacv of his case when, by inference, he 'blamed Great Britain for a Monarchist coup at Kalamata, when no British troops were near that spot. Mr Bevin left no doubt of his conviction that, except as a reply to questioning of Russian actions, the Greece matter would never have been brought before the Council; and his reference to Communists who, all over tho world, endorse every attitude assumed bv Russia as though at a signal given, was not irrelevant. The attitude of Communists, however, does not necessarily imply either that the Comin-

item,, which was supposed to be i abolished, still exists, or that tho RusI sian Government has taken its. place as a director of extra-national forces all over the globe. Whatever . Russia does, or whatever she says, must be right for these people. For them she is " holy Russia," though she has ceased to apply that name to, herself. No hones seem to have been broken by Mr Bevin's plain speaking, since we are told that " the Security Council concluded as it had begun, with Mr Bevin, M. Vyshinsky, and Mr Stettinius chatting amiably, even jocularly, together." It will be well if Russia can make as good a case for her actions in Persia as Mr Bevin has made for Britain's in Greece, though its judgment on that argument has still to be expressed by the Council.