The Grey River Argus WEDNESDAY, March 31, 1948. U.N.O. AT THE CROSSROADS

Grey River Argus, 31 March 1948, Page 4

The Grey River Argus WEDNESDAY, March 31, 1948. U.N.O. AT THE CROSSROADS

CHINESE declare World War 111 already to have begun in their country and in Greece. Whether they arc so to he reckoned, in both instances there undoubtedly are hostilities, and there also are apprehensions that Austria, and Trieste, not to mention the Middle East, might presently witness hostilities -as well. It has become a commonplace saying that at least a "cold” war is proceeding, the latest illustration of which might be considered the coldness at the United Nations between the Soviet and the United States, which, it is now apprehended, may mean U.N.O. ilself going, for really practical purposes, into the discard. It is a time undoubtedly for straigh: thinking, as remarked by the Prime Minister, in this as well as in other countries. The incidence of the last and most disturb'..ig phase is being attributed to the extension of the iron curtain to cover Czechoslovakia. That is not the actual fact. The Czech rulers have only paid the penalty of trying to temporise both with the rulers of Russia and the Western nations. The success of Soviet imperialism goes much further hack. It has been due from the outset to what has been called the Quisling mind. A Quisling is a believer in the superiority of a master State, who, whether from sincere conviction or only selfish motives, is ready to assert the superiority of such master State over his own country. There are widely scattered, not only in Europe, but even as far afield as New Zealand, those who proclaim the Communist regime, whether within or without Russia, as superior to any other. It is through, these people in the first place that Soviet imperialism is able to blaze the trail of its progress, Consequently the wordy conflicts at U.N.O, or other international conferences, while they do reveal the deepening cleavage, do not offer any barrier to th'* process by which the iron curtain is spreading. At Berlin there is a point of military contact, which meantime is a pqint of disagreement. Yet the country which stands more directly than any other to-day in the path of the successful Communist movement is Austria, except regard is als: had. for the Far East, where th', expansion of Communistic power is undeniable in China. There ar * those who see everything in the light of economics, and base ad miration for Communism upon this alone. For them the indo pendence of their own nation is a most irrelevant question. They ignore the fact that in countries like our own the people are im mensely better off economically than the masses in the Sovie. "workers’" paradise”. The only reply to that point, is that some day the masses under dictatorship will be better off than they now are, and that, as for freedom in the political sense, it does not matter to the extent, of a tin of fish. Possibly the Rumanian polls would be quoted as a proof that only one in every J'ourlcen und.cr the Communist regime is dissatisfied, whereas the lesson of such apparent acquiescence is that of terror alone. The Soviet has improved no end upon Hitler’s tech nique, and succeeds even where so prosperous an industrial State was built before the war as th .it of Czechoslovakia. It would be impossible without there wer? within its gates accomplices ready to sell their country at the first, opportunity. Where the Sovie'. has improved on the Nazi tactic has been in its application under a cover of parliamentary demo - racy. The semblance of independence is left, whilst the t Quislings do all, and any who rebel are treated as saboteurs of the new Government. President Truman says his country will not stand for the enslavement of other countries, and that what is toward at present is the same menace of slavery as Hitler was. The U.N.O. deadlock is thus explained, as well as the defence proposals meantime under discussion in the United States, as well as those contemplated in other countries, though with rather Jess publicity. Peace is a most, worthy ideal, and it embraces social and industrial life, as well as political relations. When, however, the henchmen of the Kremlin call in other countries on the workers to agitate for peace in the military sense.

but call at the same lime for war in the industrial sense, they arc open to the utmost suspicion. It is the authentic call of the Quisling.