The Grey River Argus THURSDAY, October 13, 1949. COERCION OF THE CZECHS

Grey River Argus, 13 October 1949, Page 4

The Grey River Argus THURSDAY, October 13, 1949. COERCION OF THE CZECHS

ALTHOUGH economic stress may be still characteristic of Europe as a whole, there are contrasts not only between the West and the East of the Continent, but also between different countries in the area where the Communists are dominant. These arc differences rather of a political than an economic nature. As a matter of fact a sort of agreement for trade is reported between the East and West of Germany, which, significantly, is of a merely commercial, instead of an official kind. One notable contrast is in the manner in which the Parliament for the Western Republic of Germany has been elected by universal suffrage, and a regime of the one-party type has arbitrarily been set up to rule" the Soviet zone in the Soviet fashion. The former has demonstrated its democratic character by immediately questioning the policy of the Western Powers in regard to the removal of Ruhr factories with a war production potential, and not without some effect. The East German regime, on the other hand, has begun by proclaiming its absolute,, subservience to the Soviet, and it is any odds that this is tolerated simply because the. Communists possess all of the military power and have at their back the might of the Red Army. How long the situation may thus remain is a question not yet to be answered, but it may soon vary if the neighbouring territory of Czechoslovakia is anything to go by. The arrest "of forty thousand people in a few days demonstrates that the Czechs and Slovaks have been soon disillusioned by Communist regimentation, and it is said that even the Party itself is tending to split. The next thing may be trials on the lines of those in Hungary of Cardinal Mindsze.nty and other ecclesiastics, and later of Communist Ministers and military leaders, although a different pattern is seen in Rumania, where the clergy, except those who are subservient, have been put out of commission in a body, and where the only resistance is military action of a guerrilla order. Poland may be expected to be subjected in due course to the procedure of Moscow, which is to liquidate all groups that do not submit abjectly to the domination of the Party. It is stated to be the middle class and the intelligentia, or, in fact, all classes except the thorough going Communists, whom the Czech regime is striving to disintegrate and scatter quite as much as the clergy. In addition those Communists who do not submit entirely to the dictatorship arc among those involved in the mass arrests, whose fate looks to be grim. In Russia millions have been similarly hauled away to eamps for forced labour, and their privations in a very great number of cases mean that they never will return to trouble the Communist hierarchy again. It is doubtless with the knowledge that very many millions whom the Communists have under their heel are as discontented as those Czechs now disappearing into forced labour camps, that the Yugoslav dictator is openly denouncing the tyranny of Moscow and of its minions in all of the other socalled satellites. When some of those minions in East Germany denounce as undemocratic the republic of West Germany, they obviously speak for the Kremlin alone. If the populace had the chance, the majority would follow in the steps of the hundreds of thousands, or the millions, who already have tied westwards from the Soviet zone. The precaution certainly has been taken to organise Germans into a force which assures a police State in East Germany, such as scarcely had been perfected in Czechoslovakia. In every Communist ruled territory there is an active underground movement, even though less may leak out about, that than the little .allowed to transpire regarding 1 the life of the populations generally. Such a tension may not be calculated to continue indefinitely. .In several instances it is causing anxiety among the dictators, and th ('re is reason to think that Tito’s example will not bo lost upon others whenever there is an opportunity of following if.