STATESMEN AT YALTA

New Zealand Listener, Volume 23, Issue 583, 25 August 1950, Page 16

STATESMEN AT YALTA

ROOSEVELT AND THE RUSSIANS, THE YALTA CONFERENCE, by Edward R. Stettinius; Jonathan Cape. English price, 16/-.

(Reviewed by

R. M.

Burdon

| Bharreiietd what took place in narrow circle of Russia’s rulers immediately after the Yalta conference? Was Stalin accused of having sold out to capitalism by isolationists and Marxian doctrinaires, or was the whole Russian attitude throughout the con- | ference a diabolically subtle pretence of willingness to co-operate with the west? After reading Mr. Stettinius’s day to day account of negotiations the latter ‘supposition is hard to swallow, yet the "fact remains that scarcely had the big three returned to their respective countries when Russia’s distrust of western intentions, partially though not wholly explicable, became manifested in a reluctance to honour obligations that has never since diminished. To grasp the play of negotiation in its full. significance one must recall the circumstances of February, 1945. Having been assured by his military advisers that the Japanese war might well last ‘till 1947 and cost America a million casualties, Roosevelt was naturally anxious that Russia should enter the far eastern war as soon as possible. The high hopes of an early victory engendered by successes gained in the autumn of 1944 had been dispelled by von Rundstedt’s counter-attack in the Ardennes. The atomic bomb had not yet been tried out, and Russia’s recent military successes had made her, with or without negotiation, the unquestioned arbiter of Eastern Europe. With all these aids to bargaining power it is somewhat surprising that Stalin should have made so many concessions. He accepted, for instance, the American formula for voting on the Security Council; he withdrew, at Roosevelt’s insistence, his claim for a vote for each of the sixteen Soviet Republics, and yielded to British and American demands that France be allowed a zone of occupation in Germany. The reader of this book will be able to speculate with added knowledge as to why the spirit of Yalta evaporated so soon, and to ponder over a problem that can scarcely be solved till the Politburo reveals its archives. He will also, no doubt, be entertained b¢ the intimate exchanges of great men engaged in settling human destiny, "When the President told Churchill that China does not want Indo-China,-Churchill replied: ‘Nonsense,’ The President had said to him, ‘Winston, this is something which you are just not able to understand. You have 400 years of acquisitive instinct in your blood and you just don’t understand how a country might not want to acquire land somewhere if they can get it. A new period has opened in the world’s history, and you will have to adjust yourself to it." BAD HOLLYWOOD THIS SPRING OF LOVE, by Charles Mergendahl; Hodder and Stoughton. English price, 10/6. REVIEWER might rather unkindly suggest that this novel has been carefully blue-printed. (American soldiers arrive in Wellington, New Zea-

land: Handsome lieutenant meets beau-. tiful young woman: Husband of b.y.w. missing in Italy: Suspense, heartbreak and passionate love: h. of b.y.w. turns up: ? ! ! ?: baby: whose?: solution.) Let’s hear what a young friend of mine, Clementina, has to say about it. During the "invasion" Clementina was a child observer of mass yanking; but she has since grown into a young woman who has read all the books, listened to all the music, looked at all the pictures, and seen all the films-all quite incidentally, of course. "Clementina, is it a good book?" "No!" "Why?" "It’s all furniture and bourbon." "What else?" "Bad Hollywood." "Would it make a film?" "No." "You mean the baby?" "Yeas," ‘ "If you sin you must pay?" "You must, pay socially." "Is it Hemingway?" "Ham Hemingway." "What about New Zealand?" "It’s made up mostly. You go out of Wellington harbour and head north-east to Marlborough Sounds." "Haven’t you anything good to say?" "I was sorry when I didn’t laugh." "Sorry for what?" "The war and people-and authors who try." "So there’s something?" "I don’t know." Nor reader, does your reviewer.

F.

S.