BRITISH REALISM

...True also that a few brickbats are sometimes thrown at Britain, partly out of habit and partly because no one thinks they are likely to have any effect on Anglo-American relations which are based on solid mutual interests...

...Nor have there been any articles realistically appraising Russia's Far Eastern policy, or giving the cons as well as the pros on the question of whether Russia is likely to join us in the war against Japan after Hitler's defeat...

...I am no versifier or I should be glad to paraphrase this into something about American journalists and editors who see no evil, speak no evil, and hear no evil, except, of course, in the camp of our enemies...

...Collaboration is a good and popular word today, but so was appeasement once, before Hitler made it a synonym for supine cowardice in face of aggressive power...

...But when Japan has been eliminated, what then...

...The article goes on: "If the recent Sakhalin Agreement reflects new strength and a new sense of freedom, there is nothing in past policy to suggest that the Soviet Government is prepared to make a permanent policy of tolerating the Japanese encroachments in Manchuria...

...European power politics are abhorrent to them, whereas for the English they are the facts of life and accepted as such...

...Of course it is the so-called Left which is particularly at fault in this respect, but the "capitalist press" for the most part takes a similar line...

...In Europe Anglo-American diplomacy has had to make some embarrassing adjustments—and will doubtless have to make more— because of the baseless assumption that Moscow wants exactly the same things as London and Washington...

...The "embarrassing adjustments" which Anglo-American diplomacy has had to make in Europe mean, in effect, the breaking of pledges to small allies for the sake of "collaboration" with Russia...

...On a number of important issues considered too hot to handle in most of the American press, you find a good deal of realistic discussion and frank comment in such British journals as the Economist, Statist, New Statesman, Nineteenth Century, Contemporary Review...

...Embarrassing Adjustments' The attitude of the ostrich is hardly one likely to advance the desires of the American people-for a better world and avoidance of a third World War...

...Would it not be far better, not only for our souls and our reputations, but also for our future security, that we should call a spade a spade and keep the record straight...

...8 issue of the London Economist which contains an article on "Russia in the Far East...

...And if this were to happen, would the old collision between Russian and Chinese interests recur...

...But Russia is for the most part treated as an Immaculate Conception not only in the New Republic, Nation, PM, New York Post, etc., but also in the Herald Tribune and many other dailies, and in almost every weekly and monthly magazine...

...Similarly as to Jugoslavia and Greece, the American public is given no inkling as to what are the real issues, for to discuss them frankly would be to criticize Russia, and that is taboo...

...Moreover, the British, being old hands at diplomacy, know that just as kind words butter no parsnips, an unkind word never yet broke an alliance...

...True that China is considered fair game in America and comes in for a lot of vehement criticism, but this is largely because the Soviet Union and Japan are at peace, and because there is no love lost between Moscow and Chungking...

...the "Russians who have never been "enthusiastic" about the government of Chiang Kai-shek, are even less so today...

...British Can't Afford Deception It is hardly likely that American censorship is more severe than the British, or American editors more timid...

...Such vital issues as Russo-Polish relations, if dealt with at all, are made to appear as depending on a "border dispute...

...Take, for instance, the question of Russo-Japanese relations and Moscow-Chungking relations which it is not considered good form to discuss in America...

...Referring to the March last fighting between the Russian and Chinese forces on the Outer Mongolia-Sinkiang border, and Russia's subsequent demarche against China, it says: "Thus in reasserting their reviving strength in the Far East, the Russians are apparently ready to use it as much against Chungking as against Tokyo...

...Today the British journalist deserves a more flattering doggerel, for it is refreshing to read some of the British newspapers and periodicals with their candid and penetrating analysis of both the European and Asiatic political situation...

...Of course, the contrast between the American and British treatment of controversial issues as between the various members of the United Nations, is also due to the idealistic temper of the American people...

...True also, that the United States State Department is a favorite whipping boy of the so-called Left press...

...Tracing the course of Soviet-Japanese relations, the Economist summarizes them as having been marked by "tolerance and relative passivity" on Russia's side for the last 20 years, first on account of weakness and then on account of preoccupation else- where...

...Russia In The Far East In contrast to this the British press has not been afraid to look the facts in the face...

...To ignore the fact that Russia in Asia, as in Europe, has "very different desires" to our own will not magically resolve the differences...

...Since the United States is more directly and closely involved in the hostilities against Japan than Britain, and is likely to have the greater say in the Far Eastern postwar settlement, it is a pity that there is no influential organ in this country which is sufficiently well informed and bold to take the same line as the Economist, which concludes its article as follows: "Even if this proves to be the direction of the Soviet's policy, it does not in the least follow that they will be unwilling to reach an accommodation with the very different desires of the Western Allies...

...Take, for instance, the Apr...

...The same mistake must not be made in the Far East...

...As the Economist also points out, "the happenings in Mongolia suggest the possibility-that all the Powers may not finish the war recognizing the same Chinese Government...

...That the above is not pure speculation is indicated by the suggestion openly made in the New Republic this year, and covertly made by Edgar Snow in the Saturday Evening Post last year, that the United States should "recognize" the Chinese Communist regime as a separate government...

...The Nineteenth Century, although more outspoken in its criticism of Anglo-American appeasement of Russia than any other British publication, is by no means the only one to point out the road we are traveling, or to warn against the danger of not realistically appraising Russia's policy both in Europe and in Asia...

...After commenting on the fact that many people take it for granted that when the German war is over Russia will be ready to join Britain, the United States, and China to defeat Japan, The Economist, proceeds to show that the facts give no warrant for any such assumption...

...The same deliberate blindness characterizes most of our popular columnists and radio commentators with regard to the European situation...

...Will the Russians return to the traditional policy of expanding influence in Manchuria...

...With the exception of the Army and Navy Journal, which is not read by the general public, I don't believe there has been a single article in a well known American weekly or monthly journal which has discussed the implications of the latest Russo-Japanese Agreements, under which Japan gives up her oil and coal concessions in Sakhalin but is guaranteed her fish supplies from Russian waters for five years...

...When these problems are tackled there are nearly always some pieces missing from the jig saw, on account of the author or the editor's fear either of offending one of our Allies or of criticising "his own side" at home...

...and who rarely draw their readers' attention to the clouds, already far larger than a man's hand, on the international horizon...

...These weeklies and monthlies really have no counterpart here, for sutside the columns of The Progressive, the New Leader, and a few other papers of small circulation, you rarely find writers facing up to the great problems which confront the world of today...

...It seems more likely that because Britain is in the danger zone the English people do not wish, and cannot afford, to live on a mental and political diet consisting largely of mush, soft soap, and wishful thinking...

...But the one essential preliminary to an accommodation with Russian policy is for the Western Allies to understand its springs and motives...

...As this article also points out, not only has China's plight not once interfered with Russia's need for Japanese neutrality...

...Editors here must imagine that Americans would stop fighting unless their main Allies were represented as out to create a brave new world, whereas for the British it is enough to know that they fight for their country and their Empire...

...The fact that what is at stake is the very existence of an independent Poland, as against a puppet Polish government under Moscow's control, is veiled by discussions as to where the border ought to be and as to the ethnic affiliations of the peoples of Eastern Poland...

...That, of course, would mean the government of the Chinese Communists whose present capital is at Yenan in the Northwest...

...Conflict Over China Russia's Far Eastern policy is obviously isolationist and directed solely to the defense of her national interest, and if she should in the end intervene to give the coup de grace to Japan she would probably do so with the intention of re-establishing the old Tsarist "sphere of influence" in Manchuria, and of supporting "a government in North China that would be amenable to Russian influence...