2. A Guide Through Balkan Chaos

...He has just returned from a rescue mission in th* Balkans and Middle East Daring his nine months there be supplemented his thorough previous research by contacts with some of the lesding personalities of that area...

...On the other hand, why this fantastic taboo upon an honeit and realiitie discussion of Ruttia't role in the war and the coming pence...

...we mutt ward off all attempt* to play u* off againit Britain...

...The answer is not so simple...

...In history bonks, however, this village is known as the famous Sari Stefano where, in 1878, by the abortive treaty concluded there, Tsarist Russia sought to consolidate her influence in the Balkans by .the establishment of a Greater Bulgaria which would include the whole of Macedonia to the frontiers of Albania and the territory between the Danube and the Aegean Sea...

...The Teheran Agreement, the vacillating behavior of Britain and the United States in the face of Ruasia'a bold foreign policy, and Britain's obvious weakneas have convinced the master of the Kremlin that the days of the Empire are counted...

...The ignorance of political events across the ocean prevailing in this country and the complete cynicism of some of our journalists is appalling to one who has lived in the midst of the grim and bloody realities of the Balkans...

...the aged and decrepit monks and sisters, once the obedient servants of little father Nicholas II, are today pouring out their blessings and hossanas on the head of the little father in the Kremlin...

...Great Britain ia atill continuing her age-long imperialist battle, the ultimate aim of *whleh is the preservation of the Empire...

...Once again Tsarist Buisia's ambitions In the' Medlterranesn had been thwarted by her mighty neighbors in the west But the struggle went on unrelentlestly, blossoming out finally In the famous Balkan Wars of 1*18-1913...

...unless we emerge from our fools' paradiae today, tomorrow we shall have forfeited the right to apeak "i in the name of human decency and freedom...

...The Orthodox Churches in Palestine, once the pride and joy of the Tsars, but for the past two decades abandoned by revolutionary Russia, have blossomed 9*forth again...

...The revolutionsry principles which advocated independence for the "colonial peoples" and which prompted Soviet Ruasia'a dramatic withdrawal from the Middle East in the 1920's have long ago been discarded by Stalin...

...Their primary objective was to got for Russia a warm sea outlet...

...While pursuing a Panslavist policy in the Balknns, Stalin is also engaged in spreading Pan-Islnmium in the Middle East...

...For many weary years they lived, hopeil and fought, waiting for the day of their liberation, only to find themselves once more the outcasts of Europe...

...Russia's diplomatic representatives and agents, like the Tsarist pilgrims of yore and Nazi tourists of yesterday, are today everywhere in the Levant acting as protectors of the Orthodox Monasteries...

...2. A Guide Through Balkan Chaos The Tragedy of Europe is Being Enacted in Miniature in the Balkans and Middle East By Leon Dennen THERE is * I mail suburb near Constantinople stretched out along th« sapphire-colored Sea ef Marmora callad In Turkish, Yeshhllkoy...

...that there is probably not one liberated or neutral country where the United States is getting a fraction of the credit for its share in the war—chiefly because we have fallen down on the job of informing the people abroad of what we have done and why...

...The change, as the London Economist recently pointed out, is not only Ideological...

...Russia ia ready to depart from selfsufflclency at least sufficiently to claim a lien on the world's oil reserves...

...This is certainly true of Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Turkey, Bulgaria, Yugoslovia, Greece, Rumania, Poland, and Russia—the countries with which I came in contact...

...But to conceal the unsavory facts shout Kus-i sia's imperialist aims will neither speed the hour of viaaj tory nor assure for the war-torn world a lasting pessm We must live and fight with Russis but we must also understand the psychology, strategy and aims of Stalinism...

...But the people of the United States, before it is too late, must realize that today in the eleventh hour in our foreign policy...

...Also, lack of a concrete and coherent foreign policy hampers our diplomats in the fulfillment of their duties...

...The way i* open to the USA," a prominent liberal journalist recently wrote, "to implement its announced policy favoring democratic governments" in Europe by making every effort to convince Britain of • th* wisdom of cooperation in European policy and, if that fails, to make some sort of active intervention on the side of democracy as Britain U intervening on th* side of reaction...

...Both Britain and Russis have taken advantage of our diplomatic immaturity...

...But Soviet Russia's aims in the Middle East go far beyond Tsarist intentions...

...No one woo has lived for any length of time in Palestine and in the Middle East can have any love for Britain's colonisl policy...

...He counts strongly on the revival of the nationalist spirit in India snd in the dominions and also upon Anglo-Amercen rivalry...

...This emergence from autarchy may not be very rapid or very immediate, but the direction is set and there can be little doubt that henceforth Russian influence in the Middle East will have an economic basis...

...Per many decades Bulgaria and her Slav neighbors hare been need by the Tsars ss Instruments ef their exsmssleaist policies ia the Balkans snd the Bast Today "Red" Russia is merely porsaiag the policy ef Tsarist Russia...

...Stalin, like the Tsars before him, la ighttng for the domination ef the Balkans from the Adriatic to the Aegean...

...Britain, on the other hand, la once more stepping ever Greek bodies te retain her control over the Middle Best and her life-line te Indie...

...After this," he laid, "the British do not deserve to rule an empire...

...Moreovir, by favoring, consciously or unconsciously, one of the great powers, our OWI propagandists have created the impression that we are on the side of those who seek to oppress the smaller nations...

...Stalin's reply to the Timet editorial was action in Greece and the intensification of his war of nerves against Turkey...

...But Stalin hopes by striking first at British sea lanes in the Mediterranean snd then at the Middle East to get ultimately to India...

...In the same year, however, by the Treaty of Berlin, under the Influence of Disraeli and Bismarck, the Treaty of San Stefano was revised and Bulgaria lost her former acquisitions...

...I have been only too frequently asked abroad as to what is the position of the United States, the third partner in the "grand anti-Axis alliance," in this unfolding tragedy...

...Leland Stowe recently wrote that in building good will Uncle Sam is hopelessly juvenile...

...His knowledge of Slavic languages hss enabled him to get farts unavailable ia English...

...Mors fatalistic than his predecessors, Stalin respects snd hates the scumen of British politicians like Churchill and some of the labor members of the British Government, but he considers them too impotent to stop the "objective" process of the Empire's disintegration...

...The industrial areas of TransCaucasia, Kaxakstsn arid the other border republics will be the nearest if not the most efficient workshops of the Middle East...

...From internal politics, neo-revolutionary Soviet policies are now spreading to the foreign field...

...The war of nerves Bussia hss been conducting sgsinst Turkey ever since she broke off her relations with Germany—a propaganda war against a pro-Allied neutral unprecedented in its brutality—is but one phase in her struggle for the Middle Beat...

...I remember the amused expression on the face of my friend when we read in the London Timet of October 13 what purported to be a leading editorial and which stated, among other things: "The primary British interest in the area is the security of British communications in the eastern Mediterranean, and in the Middle East generally—which presupposes a friendly Greece and Turkey with a peaceful hinterland—the primary Soviet interest is the security of her own frontier, which she might legitimately try to ensure by bringing Rumania, Bulgaria, and perhaps Hungary and Yugoslavia, within the Soviet system . . . the intereats of Britain and Russia would best be served by a peaceful and united Balkans, with a rising standard of living, which forced part of the British and Soviet security systems...

...Russia, however, cognisant of British weakness, is out to destroy . the Empire...

...The Russian statesman Skobelcv once said that "Th* ttrongtr Kn$»ia it in Central Atia, the weaker it England in India, and the more will th* be conciliatory in Surop...

...The revival in Russia of the Moslem, religious community has given a chance to the various Moslem Soviet Republics to appeal to the believers throughout the Middle East in the name of Allah, of his great prophet and in the name of,,the holy Jehud, the magic word of unity which has been used effectively by the Sultans before they gave up their ghost, and is today the battle cry of every Arab nationalist Beyond Stalin's economic and political ambitions in the Balkans and in the Middle East, however, there always lurks the eternal problem of India, From Iran to Egypt all the kiosks are adorned by Moscow publication* devoted to the cans* of Indian Independence, "Bolshevism," an old Balkan Bolshevik friend who for the moment must remain nameless, told me, "regards India as the weakest link in the British Imperial structure, a key to the dissolution of the British Empire...

...The Crimean War ia being fought all over again, only with a difference...

...Perhaps our commitments at Teheran which parceled out the world among the great powers went ao far that the political situation in Europe ia beyond redemption...

...F EW commentators are s* well qualified to analyse the eomplei problems and roaIIi.-ih in the Balkans aa is Leon Dennen...

...These heroic men and women, who willingly sacrificed their lives for our common cause, arc today once again being hounded, jailed and tortured—this time by their "liberators...

...Although the diplomatic aspect of the war is today every bit as vital as the military, our diplomats with few exceptions are not equipped to handle the complicated political problems confronting them...

...We mutt be wary, however, of thou who ttek to drive a wedge between the American and Britiik people...

...No one who wsnts to live to see a complete victory over our enemies will deny the urgent n**d for understanding among the United States", Great Britain, and Russia...

...America is not yet versed in the complexities of European policies...

...The Interests of the Tsars were limited...

...In Palestine I used to watch with amusement Russia's chief agent,' Abdul Sultanov, aa he would demonstratively depart every morning to pray in the Mosque of Omar...

...But I also worked in intimate contact with the various anti-Nazi underground and resistance movements of Europe...

...The smaller nations, failing to discern any concrete policy on our part, have lost faith in us...

...This Is the second •f a series of articles giving a aammary of his conclusions on one of the moat troublesome problems of our era...

...Stalin has long been convinced that the British Empire is decadent and is not likely to survive a great crisis...

...In her fight for the control of the Middle East, revolutionary-reactionary Soviet Russia has many assets which neither Britain nor t'.'.e United States possesses...

...To me this wss merely the confirmation of a fact of which I had long been cognisant...

...Like all American journalists traveling abroad, I sought and met diplomats, statesmen and politicians...

...It is a departure from the earlier policy of autarchy...

...American preitige, until recently very high in th* Balkan* and in the Middle East, it linking rapidly...

...Equally ineffective is our overseas propaganda...

...He haa atudied the Balkan countries for many years...