The Grey River Argus MONDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1948. EUROPEAN HOPES AND FEARS

Grey River Argus, 18 October 1948, Page 4

The Grey River Argus MONDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1948. EUROPEAN HOPES AND FEARS

'p.HAT the people of Europe are generally faced, with another year of material hardship is manifest from the report which the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation has just handed the American representative, Mr Harriman. Food and other essentials are to remain well below pre-war quantity, but the Organisation proposes, in addition to continued austerity, an increase in production and trade with an eye to lessening need of American aid. The report says that only for £1,219,000,000 sterling granted by the United States, the self help programme could, not be attempted, and even with that aid there will be required in payments from say twelve of the recipient countries a sum of over £141,000.000. On top of this there will be a deficit of £55,000,000, to be met by the liquidation of foreign assets belonging to the eighteen European countries concerned. Considering the admitted dependence of any European betterment upon the assistance of the Americans, it is impossible to see the sense of the Communist argument that such assistance should be refused. If the latest Five Year Plan be quoted for emulation instead of the Marshall Plan, the question arises,' even if numbers employed by the Soviet are very great, whether many millions of them—variously computed as from five to fifteen millions —are not actually in slavery. Nothing could be attributed to the programme of the eighteen nations accepting dollars in the way of slavery, except perhaps to say that probably the bulk of the outlay under the Marshall Plan will ultimately take the form of wages. It is in fact upon political, not economic, grounds that the Communists oppose the dollar aid, and the reason is their desire to impose their soulless way of life upon the West as well as the East of Europe. The right term, moreover, is that of imposition, because there is nowhere —even in Russia—a majority for Communism, which is dead contrary to the very idea of liberty. The statement that Europe’s struggle is one of recovery versus slavery has been applied explicitly to the Berlin impasse, the Soviet regarding that centre as a vital springboard for extending its domination westward. At the same time, such an advance without actual warfare is envisaged, for the reason that there everywhere are fifth columns upon which reliance is placed for cooperation in the same way as in Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Rumania, Bulgaria, and Yugoslavia. Other such columns have been operating in Austria, Greece, and Italy, and at the moment, France illustrates their influence with the disastrous coal strike, costing the country each day a great deal more than it will obtain per diem in Marshall aid. Yet a further illustration has been' the action of the Communist General Secretary of the British Mine Workers in commending the French, strikers on the admitted ground that the Marshall plan is to be fought as an instrument of enslavement. The same gentleman previously saw fit to advocate a greater output of coal- in his own country, and a stoppage of output therefore could be of no advantage for France. It is a characteristic of the Communists to say that opponents are guilty of the very tactics they use themselves, and this seems the only explanation of their asking for opposition to the Marshall Plan on the part of such coun-

tries as the Soviet has yet been unable to bring behind the iron curtain. There is no doubt French workers generally are badly off for pay and subsistence. Otherwise there would be no such disastrous strike. In other parts of Europe the living standard is even worse, but the people know it would only be further ’worsened by a. stoppage of production. Even if the French strike forced some betterment, it would only be at the expense of the rest of the community, and already there is risk that the franc will be devalued. It may meantime seem that, while the Soviet acts, the other Powers merely talk. Apart from the dollars from America, and such other aid as Germans obtain from the West, the Soviet certainly appears to be on top, and able to boycott the United Nations as well. Nevertheless, the Russians are loud in the allegation that a war threatens, so that if the shot at capitalism should fail, they depend on the other barrel to squelch militarism. Hence talk is not entirely to be left out of account. It may seem to be bluff, but if the Berlin situation means anything, and the reactions to it on either side have any significance, the final arbitrament may be much more than vocal. That is the underlying factor that cannot be 16ft out of account. Even appeasement has its limit-