WHY DID PRAVDA PRINT SEPARATE PEACE LIE?

...Most of Pravda't lies have little effect on public opinion outside of Russia...

...fahely of doing what th*y plait to do thtmielvri...

...It is in the nature of a totalitarian dictator to carry off a program treaty-breaking annexation with much bluster and loud noises...

...And this makes the publication all the more sigmfl-***t> Tears it not one chance in a million that this *•» a mere error of judgment on the part of tha •AW of P,atda, preening himself on a journalistic *»»P as a result of the enterprise of his Cairo correspondent...

...The most irresponsible, sensational loosely edited American or British newspaper would have mora of the fresh air of truth in its ¦fee than the moat sober and restrained newapaper operating under the rules of totalitarian dictatorship...

...QNLY three sentences...

...Among the loud noises in this ease are the ostentatious alapping down of Stalin's admirer and would-be friend, Wendell Willkie...

...On this same basil it could have obtained a peace that would have left the Empire intact at the tune of the flight of Rudoll Hess to England in May, 1941, when the military outlook for the British cause was certainly dark...

...But sentences loaded with dynamite...

...People are ahot in the Soviet Union for ¦wch smaller errors of judgment...

...One of the aideet of contraband Soviet wisecracks is that there ii no truth in "The News" and bo newt in "The Truth...

...II simply does not make sense to suppose that now when the Nazi military power is beginning to totter there would be faltering on the home stretch...

...They art read by Russians with credulity, indifference or bored skepticism, depending on the individual's intelligence rating...

...Time will show...

...Indeed it was told In such a way that it was obviously the intention of the Soviet rulers to bring it to the attention of the outside world...

...The insult was phrased in such terms as to affect Great Britain, not the United Statee...

...PIRST and most obvious, there is the Soviet die-tator's intention to annex a large part of Poland and to impose a puppet government on what may remain under nominally independent Polish sovereignty...

...One purpose of the canard may be to pursue this offensive with cruder and more open methods...

...In this matter of prevarication there is no comparison between democracy at its worst and dictatorship at its beat...

...Besides being printed in this very influential newspaper it was put on the sir by Tass, the official Soviet news agency...

...Me> two adjective, eewtd better seem ae> Mm Iter let dirt star's rberarter, aa rse salad to Ma a*, ttsma ai torn emi abrtad...

...American and British support of the legitimate Polssh Government has been painfully feeble and ineffective, ominously reminiscent of British and French "support" of Czechoslovakia on the eve of Munich...

...Moreover, audi a message would never have got P*»t the severe British censorship in Cairo...

...Waa the publication in Pravda of a false report of a meeting betwsen Ribbentrop and "two prominent British personalities'* a hint, in the kind of cipher that a fellow-dictator would understand, that Ribbentrop would And two high Soviet personalities waiting should be arrange a rendesvous somewhere in Poland or in the Baltie States...

...It is believed that the meeting baa net remained without results...

...But even this feeble and ineffective support, this expression of willingness to use good offices in bringing about discussion between the Soviet and Polish Governments, has enraged Stalin...

...British separate peace negotiations would run counter to the wholi logic and spirit and purpose of British policy during the war...

...Stalin methodically killed off the leading veteran Communists and the leaders of the Red Army on the charge of planning to come to an agreement with Hitler, and then signed his own agreement with the Nasi dictator in August, lMfl...

...The purpose of the ¦seating waa to aecertain the terssa of a separate peace with Germany...

...This perhaps portends poet-war anti-British designs in Europe, or in Asia, or perhapa in both continents...

...The importance of the appearance of this message, and of its official radio publicity, is enhanced, not diminished, by its fantastically unconvincing character, measured by professional journalistic standards...

...Finally, it it e habit of dictator* to accuse etaere...

...And its contents ware calculated to awaken with a startled jerk people who had been lulled to sleep with soothing suggestions that every thing had gone beautifully at Teheran and that all we had to do was to trust Stalin and build a brave new world with him: CAIRO, Janaary 12.—"According to a report fro* t runt worthy Greek and Yugeelavian sourcea, a secret Meeting of two leading British persons I i Uaa with von Ribbentrop took place in a coastal town of the Iberian peninsula...

...to km peJMieal i sesames*, he abaraitsriasd Stasia an a rwag* ami dsetoyeJ mem...

...In the case of such a abiftjr political Agure as Stalin nothing can be ruled out as "impossible...

...There are also other possible background alemsnta...

...The official organ of the Russian Communist Party waa still atore ineptly rhriatened Prei>da ("Truth...

...No, the Pravda'* *teet lie waa a deliberate and calculated insult It is not merely a matter of balancing a Pravda '»•"«•<¦ afaiaet official British denials...

...If ths British Government had been wiliini to give Hitler a free hand in Eastern Europe it neec never bave gone to war at all...

...Whajt ia the par-pose of this particular lie at this particular moment...

...The effect will certainly be to create anti-British eentiment among the Russians...

...It mawt be eeavmctog greet noma are ml Amarisans, betberte lomfneod by pripigiato...

...thai Lmsta waa right wbea...

...I think there is strong reason to believe that this message ¦•ver originated in Cairo at all, but was "made in Moscow" and paased on to Pravda from some source h'th enough to be able to command its immediate rablicatlon...

...Every totalitarian state is largely baaed on orfganised lying, both in its internal administration and in its foreign relations...

...Moreover, I understand from private informants who are, I believe, somewhat more reliable than Pravda't mysterious "Greeks and Yugoslavs" that there was a calculated attempt by Stalin at Teheran to flatter Roosevelt and to snub • hurchil...

...One might add toe suggestion that Prairie would be a good runner-up in lying competition with the kept organs of all the totalitarian countries...

...in PVevsM, snd this latest canard...

...But Prmvdm't latest lie has been heard around the world, like the shot fired at Lexington...

...l daily newspaper bears ih« mm, inappropriate for a completely controlled and heavily centered publication, of /•«•«-fee ("Rtf...

...An old-fashioned A merican managing editor would have tossed such a despatch into the wastebasket, and aent a siuling wire to any correspondent so stupid or inexperienced as to have sent it Why on earth should anonymous Greeks or Yugo-***•'» in Cairo be authoritative sources of informa-t'un sbout a mysterious meeting that supposedly took Piece In Spain...

...In judging the workings of a mind so devious and canning as Stalin's it is usually ssfe to aaaume that aeveral considerationa may be operating simultaneous...

...Cemirary to Me tradition mad Mlewtiea Prove* bee been serving the easme ef truth to Ma recewt oaptoits...