SOVIET LOSING FIGHT AGAINST EUROPE’S RECOVERY--Mr. Acheson

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22867, 10 February 1949, Page 5

SOVIET LOSING FIGHT AGAINST EUROPE’S RECOVERY--Mr. Acheson

(9.0) WASHINGTON, Feb. 9. The Secretary of State, Mr. Dean Acheson, and the European Recovery Programme Ambassador at Large, Mr. Averell Harriman, told Congress today that Russia is losing its tight against European recovery.

Mr. Acheson said: “The outstanding fact of the first appraisals of co-opera-tive American - European recovery operations is that the programme is succeeding.” Mr. Harriman said that pressures in Europe are turning against the Communists as a result of American aid to bolster Western European economy. “Vastly More Encouraging” Mr. Acheson declared that the current situation in Europe was “vastly more encouraging than it was two years ago.” He claimed that the major cause of this was the European recovery programme and it was to protect the advances made that plans were now being worked out to strengthen the security of the nations of Western Europe and assure that the advances gained are not lost. “There has been no advance in totalitarianism in Europe,” he added. “The free community of Europe has not only held its own but it has,. during this period, made great strides forward. Within the participating countries there has been a rebirth of faith in the vitality of the democratic system and its ability to deal witlj their post-war problems.” Mr. Acheson claimed that in every recent important election the people of Europe had "vigorously reaffirmed thenadherence to the principles of individual freedom and governments based on constitutional restraints.” He raised the refusal of Labour to be “misled by foreign dictation.” Definite Advances Mr. Acheson, detailing the definite advances made in the European field of collective security, described the Brussels Pact as a striking manifestation of the resolve of the signatory countries

to defend their independence and freedoms against external aggression. Urging patience on those who wanted, rapid unity in Europe, Mr. Acheson' said there had been significant steps toward the eventual development of a closer political unity, including the work of the Office of European Economic Co-operation and the creation of a Council of Europe as well as the Brussels Pact.

Mr. Acheson said that the form and nature of these developments along economic and political lines must have come from the people of Europe themselves because only they could work out their own salvation, through their own efforts. The United States role must be to encourage and support these efforts. Urging Congressmen to remember the F.R.P. programme was succeeding, Mr. Acheson said: “The worst of all courses would be to relax our efforts and allow the momentum of achievement to diminish. To do so would be to lose all that has been gained and to lose also the opportunity to bring the programme to full completion.” Sabotage by Soviet

Mr. Harriman said: “We are winning the struggle for freedom and peace, despite a deliberate and bitter campaign of sabotage by the Soviet.” He said that in the battle against communism, the role of the free labour unions of the Western Union and the assistance which could be given by the free labour unions of America were of the highest importance. “It is essential for all of us to understand that the events in Europe forcibly brifig out that free labour unions are among the chief bastions of Western democracy under unrelenting assault by a stubborn enemy.”

Mr. Harriman called on American private investment to press forward vigorously in the development of colonies of European nations. A comprehensive and co-operative effort by the European countries concerned and the United States would help to carry forward the progressive development of colonies in the interests of their inhabitants in accordance with the principles of the United Nations Charter. It. would benefit the European nations and provide raw materials for American industry.