Bay Of Plenty Beacon Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. FRIDAY, JULY 30, 1948 APPROACH TO SOVIET

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 75, 30 July 1948, Page 4

Bay Of Plenty Beacon Published Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. FRIDAY, JULY 30, 1948

APPROACH TO SOVIET

Yesterday’s news that the three-Power talks in London had ended in complete agreement on the substance of a new approach to Moscow has in it the seeds of encouragement for those who believe the differences between the Western powers and their late ally can yet be settled peaceably. Washington’s idea of an approach to M. Stalin himself, in the hope of finding a way out of the deadlock which now .exists and widening the scope for fourPower discussions of German problems and perhaps the whole . field of a European peace, settlement, has the ring of commonsense. It is to be hoped that the mounting war hysteria that has beqn noticeable in some recent American press statements will be held in check while the proposed discussions proceed. One can imagine it would be very embarrassing for a salesman to try to do business with a firm about whom one of his own principals was screaming slanders as an accompaniment to the sales talk., A barrage of vituperation aimed at Russia at this ticklish juncture might have the same effect. It cannot be reasonably claimed even by her most ardent apologists that ; R,ussia has. been blameless in bringing about the present situation. Nor have-Rus-sian comments about ourselves always been complimentary. But ill-timed attacks, often more bitter than the facts warranted, - have not helped. It is a fact in all arguments that the more the parties to a dispute slang each other the more bitter they become, and the less likely to settle their differences reasonably and satisfactorily. Even in this courtry, and right here in Whakatane, therb has been a lot of hysterical war-talk, openly naming the Soviet as the next object of our armed attention. 'Such-talk cannot make for peace. It would be indeed a shameful thing if, having stood shoulder-to-shoulder to rid the world of the scourge of Fascism, we and the Russians were to turn and rend each other almost before the world had had the chance to feel the relief from the burden which has been lifted from its shoulders. We need not accept the Soviet’s political doctrine. But can . we deny that the present regime . has been a great thing for the Russians themselves? However, those New Zealanders'who believe a similar thing here would be just as good for New Zea- , landers are few indeed. Hope lies in the possibility that the ruling powers of all the i

great nations involved in the present dispute might yet prove themselves great enough to rise above political prejudices and narrow national and sectional interests and work out a plan whereby the peoples of the world may live together in the harmony and ' peace for which the masses of all nations crave.