Shadows
T is disappointing when those whose interests are the same become suspicious and quarrelsome. But it need not be alarming. If the discussions of the Council of Foreign Ministers have not been carried on without friction — if "matters," as the Prime Minister said a few days ago, are indeed "very difficult" all over the world -it is well to remember how much more difficult they were a year ago, and that three years ago they seemed almost hopeless. Yet we came through, and we shall come through the present anxieties if we resist depression and panic. We must of course face the facts, which are ugly, and at least potentially explosive. It would be what Mr. Fraser called "hiding things from our own sight" to pretend that the "clashes" of the London Conference began in passing irritation and will end in embarrassed smiles. They express deeply rooted suspicions and conflicts in fundamental policies. It is quite possible that Russia thinks it is democracy to. make the material resources of the Balkans freely available to all the people. It is quite possible that the British and American view -that democracy begins in the mind, and cannot exist where there are not free thinking and free speaking-seems to Moscow cant and humbug, and a cloak," if not watched, for dark materia! manoeuvrings. There is almost no limit to the depth to which misunderstanding may sink on such issues, and to ignore these conflicts or complacently brush them aside would be almost lunatic. But it still remains true that they are conflicts between friends, determined somehow or other to remain friends. Even if we were allies only and not friends-and in the sense in which such words must be used internationally that is not truewe get the facts out of focus unless we continually remember that they are problems of peace and not of war, that the war has been won, and that the present state of Germany was a not impossible fate for Britain as well as for Russia three or four years ago.
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 13, Issue 328, 5 October 1945, Page 5
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343Shadows New Zealand Listener, Volume 13, Issue 328, 5 October 1945, Page 5
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