WEST FIRMLY SETTLED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27039, 25 March 1949, Page 5

WEST FIRMLY SETTLED

[ATTEMPTS BY RUSSIA TO DISLODGE ALLIES DEFEATED IN EUROPE

New Zealand Press Association—Copyright Rec. 9.15 p.m. LONDON, Mar. 24. The British Foreign Secretary, Mr Ernest Bevin, in his reply to the debate on Germany and Eastern Europe in the House of Commons last night, firmly rebutted any idea that the Western Allies were losing the cold war. Two years ago, he said, when the cold war “ really began to get hot,” it looked as if Russia would succeed in forcing us back in Germany, as if Italy would be completely disrupted, and as if the French Government, facing the tremendous strikes of the Communist Party, might fall. The real purpose behind all that was to drive a wedge between Western Europe and the Western world and create a situation where the West could never unite. What had happened? asked Mr Bevin. Western Germany was safe. He did not believe it would ever go Communist now. French economy was well on the way to restoration and Italy had produced a very firm Government. The Atlantic Pact had been agreed, and new machinery would be set up which would produce a unity in the West which few could have thought possible two or three years ago.

Russia was a difficult country, Mr Bevin added. She had broken her agreements in the political field, but in trade and other respects had kept them. There seemed to be a different morality in the political field in the last few years. That had been a tragedy, and would prove a tragedy for Russia herself in the end. Mr Bevin also dealt with a suggestion that there should be an economic blockade of Eastern Germany. Mr Bevin said that meant sanctions, and sanctions meant war. It would be back to Abyssinia again. Mr Bevin said he thought Allied resistance to the Russian attempt to drive them out of Berlin was the first arrest of the onward march. He said the cost of the Berlin air-lift was nothing to the cost of the military effort which would have been necessary had the Russians reached the Rhine.

During the lifetime of the present Parliament there had been a steady progressive deterioration in the international situation very similar to the years preceding the war and following Hitler’s assumption of power, said Mr Harold Macmillan (Conservative), initiating the debate. “ While the British Empire has been in liquidation, the Tsarist empire has been almost completely reconstituted. We could not believe that the genuine friendship we honestly held out to Our Russian allies could be so scornfully rejected. Never in history was such a fund of goodwill rapidly accumulated or so recklessly squandered. What Russia will do will always be uncertain and unpredictable. “ I think it is not impossible that a kind of fake appeasement policy be launched, especially in relation to Germany, and I think this will take the form of offering to conclude a treaty with Germany involving the ending of the joint occupation by all Powers If this happens we would lose almost overnight the whole result of the sixyear war.” Mr Macmillan said that if Britain and America agreed to withdraw their occupation forces, then the “ ganster forces ” ’built up in Eastern Germany may do in Germany exactly what was done in Czechoslovakia. Then at one blow the Communist menace would be on

the Rhine and the Ruhr would pass into enemy hands. ■ -Mr 'Macmillan continued: “ I fear that if the Greek war is not ended this summer, Greek morale will collapse and if Greece collapses and goes behind the Iron Curtain, first, Marshal Tito will be liquidated and Yugoslavia now a running sore in Moscow’s side, will be made healthy from the Russian viewpoint; secondly, the whole Eastern Mediterranean flank will be turned against us, We will then be back strategically to the autumn of 1940.” Mr Macmillan said jet engines had been sold to the Russians and her satellites. They should have gone to the Greeks. “Do not give away guns to get butter. Go elsewhere. Go to the Dominions or the colonies of Western Europe. Make the world this side of the Iron Curtain a demonstrably better place to live in and ultimately the news of this success will filter through.’’

Threat in Balkans

Mr Macmillan said Moscow was planning a political coup in the shape of a so-called Macedonian federation under Bulgarian leadership with the aim of destroying Tito and Greecp Britain ’and America should declare that they would not tolerate Bulgarian intervention in Greek affairs and that Russia would be held responsible for Bulgaria’s actions. The Minister of State, Mr Hector McNeil, said: “ The difference between 1938 and the present day is that we do not ask anyone else to carry out burdens properly. Our own and Tito's position is of great importance to us, but. we should not place embarrassments in the Yugoslav Government’s way. The Soviet, Polish and Albanian Governments have employed most ruthless economic methods against Tito.” Mr McNeil was referring to a suggestion by Mr Macmillan that economic assistance be given to Tito on the condition that he closed the Greek frontier and brought pressure on the Albanians. Mr McNeil, referring to the Communist-sponsored proposal for grouping the three areas of Macedonia (now divided between Bulgaria Greece and Yugoslavia) under Bulgarian sponsorship, said this directive disclosed starkly that the rebellion in Greece was directed toward the eventual dismemberment of Greece. Mr McNeil assured the House that the campaign in Greece against the rebels would not be diminished nor confined to methods previously employed. This subject was on the agenda for talks which Mr Bevin would have with the American Secretary of State, Mr Dean Acheson, in Washington. Mr McNeil said Britain’s trade policies in Eastern Europe did not prejudice any British commercial or trade relationship with the Commonwealth countries