TRENDS: Ideas in action; events as they reflect social tendencies.
OAK, LISTON M.
TRENDS: Ideas in action; events as they reflect social tendencies. By Liston M. Oak From Bad to Better to Worse in Rumania PERCIVAL KNAUTH of Tim* magasine reported from Bucharest that Rumanians...
...Sporadic guerilla fighting has been taking place in the Asturias, in Galicia, in Andalusia, along the Pyres' sees, and sUiarhari, for s long time...
...but all the facts support it...
...Unless Moscow has assurances from London, Washington, and Paris of effective aid, this call for a revolt now would seem irresponsible adventurism, doomed t* defeat—a political maneuver, at the expense of antifascist Spaniards, to rally support to the Supreme Junta...
...Already de Gaulle demands an equal veice in determining the future of Germany...
...No wonder that, after the "council of workmen ami soldiers" had completed its parleys, Stalin waa "cordial to Churchill...
...Now the Communists have called for a revolt in Spain...
...The EDES, rival guerrillas of the EAMELAS, withdrew forces from Athens, leaving that area as the domain of the EAM, which has fought the EDES more than the Germans...
...Sir Walter Citrine said that when the Allies march into Berlin all Germans will protest their opposition to Nasism...
...should curb postwar exports so as to leave some markets for others...
...The Trades Union Congress also supported the claim of Russia to forced labor battalions to repair devastation wrought by German armies...
...CemwmeJ.ts Call for »evoto»io...
...Like Italy, Romania is in a bad economic way...
...He predicted revolutions throughout Europe...
...It seems highly improbable that Britain sr America will help the Spanish revolutionists, or that Russia or France can send enough aid to count, until after Germany's defeat...
...This will strengthen the position of the isolationist* in the American Senate...
...is opposing the demand of Russia for reparations of $400,000,000,000 in kind over four years, twice the amount to be paid by Finland or Rumania, and much too high, it is said in Washington...
...Poland, the Baltic States, the Balkans, will remain the powder-keg they have been throughout modern history...
...So also it was optimistically announced that the previous conferences at Moscow and Teheran had resulted in agreements...
...In El Salvador a mass meeting wss machine-gunned, by the government...
...Any link of the Rumanian Communists with Moscow is so carefully concealed that correspondent...
...JVar and the Working Clam commented that the U.S.A...
...between the Germans and the Russians the country has been stripped of cattle, food, fuel, machinery, even seed for nest year's crops...
...both have been preempted by "Aryans...
...Riots have occurred often during the paat montha, and the Ronomi Government faces the necessity of solving one of its toughest problems...
...Doe* this foreshadow the entrance of the USSR in the arena of competition for oil—oil imperialism...
...They can be effectively handled later on...
...There is growing evidence ef unrest among the police sad armed forces in Catatonia...
...By Liston M. Oak From Bad to Better to Worse in Rumania PERCIVAL KNAUTH of Tim* magasine reported from Bucharest that Rumanians generally expert that thencountry will b*NW a Soviet republic, or at lea»t there will be a pro-Soviet govirnsseiit in which the Communist Party will be dominant...
...most of the non-Communist Spanish republicans believe that it is premature, and doubt the wisdom of attempting a civil war now...
...Any imperialistic aims have been renounced...
...without a plebiscite, the 110,000,000 people there will live under the shadow of the Kremlin...
...Between this two Moscow conference, Russia had consolidated her position in Eastern and Central Europe, and the world seems to have accepted as inevitable the definition of that area as a Russian sphere...
...Unless the western democracies let Russia have her way, he says, we will risk the demolition of the Dumbarton Oaks plan for world security...
...Political leaders at the head of the government arc fighting for advantageous positions, unable to agree...
...Thus embarassment will be avoided, and the diplomats will deal with /aits eceoaipJie...
...At Teheran the big three agreed to respect the sovereignty and independence of the Iianisn Government...
...The present government is a shaky coalition of Peasant, Liberal, Social Democratic, and Communist parties...
...William Philip Sims reports that Poland will lose half her territory and be forced to submit to the imposition of a puppet government inside what is left, plus a slice ef Germany in "compensation...
...Per a while the Red Army went on something like a spree...
...Such violent outbursts do not appear anywhere in totalitarian Russia unless they are in line with the policy of the Kremlin...
...A students' strike touched off a revolutionary explosion in Guatemala last week, ending in the ousting ______Li-'--:- - of provisional President Federico Ponce, puppet ef former dictator Jorge Ubieo, who was overthrown July 1. Trade unions joined in the students, young army officers, and other groups in overthrowing the dietatership...
...Moscow will tolerate for a while the presence in the postwar government, of liberated Poland a few who are now in the Polish group in London...
...The concessions to the Polish government-in-exile are slight...
...and Comrades Gathered Mere .. • Winston Churchill, Victorian gentleman of the oldschool and Tory imperialist, who contributed all he could after 1917 to the defeat of the Russian Revolution, called the conference in Moscow of British and Russian diplomats "a council of workmen and soldiers...
...Iran's Government was denounced as pre-faseist by Trud, organ of the Soviet "trade unions," which are part of the government apparatus...
...Toward Russia the attitude of Romanians has gone from bad to batter to worae," cabled Kututh...
...transport is disorganised...
...British bankers, industrialists, and politicians have suggested that the U.S.A...
...Aside from the separatist movement, agrarian reform is long overdue in Sicily...
...Soviet agents demand the resignation of the Iranian Government...
...Evidently, Stalin and Churchil) agree on treatment of Germany: unconditional surrender, partial dismemberment, reparations in the form of the stripping of German industry, slave labor' battalions to repair damages in Russia, complete, control and occupation of Germany for an indefinite future...
...The Communists are numerically the smallest, but their influence is strengthened by their united front with the Social Democrats and by the presence of the Red Army...
...Over 160,000 face starvation...
...Recognition will aid de Gaulle and the moderates against the Communists...
...This Anglo-Russian "soviet" of diplomat* had, according to official communiques, reached unanimity on most pressing problems—Poland, the Balkans, treatment of Germany, division of Europe into spheres of influence, keeping the peace by the dominant power of the big three...
...Under them most of the old reactionaries and fascists continue in office...
...The Red Army requisitioned supplies, Russian soldiers were not used to stores Riled with gooes...
...The U.S.A...
...George Tatareseu, who with King Carol set up Rumania's first dictatorship, and lfihai Relea, an cx-faaciat in Tata rescu's regime...
...The call for the launching of an open civil war came through the agency of the "Supreme Junta" or National Union, organised by the Communists as an attempt to gather into a united front opponents of Franco including the extreme right—the monarchists and others disgruntled with the Falange...
...m Spoia . . . • The Communists called the Warsaw uprising "premature," although the Moscow rsdio had urged it...
...Opponents insisted thst the Bsnk of England and the Tory appeasers should also bear a share of guilt for having aided Hitler and German rearmament...
...The president resigned...
...In Madrid Socialists and trade unionists hsve held underground conferences...
...The civilians evacuated from Warsaw and the Polish Underground fighters who surrendered to the Germsns are being massacred at the concentration camp at Oswiecim...
...The Government refuses to enact laws reinstating them...
...As one result of this "non-intervention," the Rumanian Jews have failed to have their civil rights restored...
...Subsequent events did not justify such optimism...
...The Spanish Maquis in southern Franca have carried out frequent successful raids across lh» border...
...Honduras is likewise in s state of revolt, as well as Nicaragua...
...And note the fact that the Polish governmentin-exile does not reciprocate in this name-calling...
...If and when "agrement" is reached, it will be on the basis of the acceptance by the Polish government-inexile, at the insistence of London and Washington, of terms dictated by Moscow which may seem to include certain concessions but which spell death to Polish sovereignty...
...This alliance of Communists and fascists is defended as political expediency...
...controls 57 per cent of the world's oil, Hi itHin 27 per cent, and Russia only 11 per cent...
...Iran recently recently rejected Russia's bid for oil concessions...
...A* Churchill said good-byes to "the Comrades gathered here," Pravda reported mass meetings jn Lublin denouncing the Polish government-in-exile in the same familiar lying terms, and Mikolajczyk was held responsible for alleged "terrorist acta" of his followers in liberated areas of Poland...
...rlrlsh labor Adopt*"Voeslftertism . . . • By a four-to-one majority the British Trades Union Congress reversed its previous position and adopted a position on treatment of Germany similar t« that of I xii <l Vansittart Its resolution holds that the German people must bear a share of guilt for Nasi aggression and war crimes...
...Having demanded everything, Stalin now retreats to his basic demands—the old technique of all bargainers, in the market-place as in diplomacy...
...enters it are as dangerous as the powerful selfish interests who oppose any league...
...The influx of the Red Army worsened the housing shortage...
...This is a cynical view...
...Former Premier Juho Paaaikivi heads the new proSoviet Finnish Association organised in Helsinki...
...People don't want their kings or fascists back," he said...
...The Communist EAM controls the Ministries of Labor, the National Economy, and Agriculture...
...It seems to be the strategy of the big powers to reach "settlements" which are not in accord with the spirit ef the Atlantic Charter and of the international cooperation of Dumbarton Oaks, btfor* the time cornea to ratify the United Nations Security Plan...
...Joseph* M. Levy, correspondent of the N*w Y»i k Tim**, predicts that "if the political chaos now prevailing Continues, Rumania will be faced by civil war...
...all the advantages lie with the Lublin Committee...
...The Germans broke their promise to treat the Underground fighters as soldiers and prisoners-of-war...
...Lucretiu Patrascanu, Communist leader, supports and protects such reactionaries as former Premier...
...praise Russian nonintervention in Rumanian affairs...
...They fear that the influence of the Allied weatera democracies will wane...
...Altogether eight anti-fascist parties are is the popular front coalition government, plus two in- „ dependents...
...Sumner Welles warned that "perfectionists" who demand a perfect League of Nations before the U.S.A...
...and insofar as any agreements were reached, they were triumphs of Russian imperialist diplomacy, obtained, evidently, by threat of a separate peace...
...The Communists claimed that battles are now raging throughout the Spanish peninsula, and that their Junto is directing the struggle...
...IN SUMMARY: Some of the main political events of the week for those who do not read their daily papers carefully • Recognition of the Provisional Government of France headed by de Gaulle—long overdue—unfreeses France's assets in this country, totaling SI,000,000,000 in gold...
...The entire German nation must suffer stern penalties, it was resolved...
...Premier Papandreou, Social Democrat, organized a new Greek Cabinet...
...British bondholders fear that the new liberal government, m«T repudiate or demand a scaling-down of Greece* foreign debts...
...The majority is liberated France are antiFranco, remembering the aid given to the Vichy regime But the British Government continue* its friendly attitude toward Franco, and hopes for the reeatablrshmeat of the monarchy under Don Juan...
...It will also contribute to stability in France and give that country added authority in the councils of the United Nations...
...On the Polish conflict, everything points to a victory for Stalin, with face-saving formulas for Churchill...
...it is a means of increasing Communist influence...
...Released from concentration camps by the abrogation of anti-Jewish laws, they have no homes and ne Jobs...
...The Sicilian Separatist leaders were arrested following a demonstration fired on by soldiers, in which 19 were killed...
...But such guerilla warfare and an seen civil war are quite different Asseng the tea ears ef the Spanish guerillas are Generals VillaHta and Rovira, who commanded POUM divisions during the civil war...
Vol. 27 • October 1944 • No. 44
