Where the News Ends
CHAMBERLIN, WILLIAM HENRY
Where the News Ends ByWILLIAM HENRY CHAMBERLIN The Case for East European Federation WHEN the Krit World Wir ended, thirteen stetes were In existence in the wide ere* from the Arctic Ocean to the...
...If we do not play our part, in accomplishing this task, if by actions such as the abrupt termination of 1.end-Gease and by creating a Chinese tariff wall around this country we make it im-imssible for Britain to regain and improve her old economic position, if we resume the prewar path of economic nationalism, we shall prepare the basis for another world catastrophe in which we shall go down together with the rest of the western world...
...aged economy" differs only in tempo from the "free enterprise" system of the United States as it has developed under the New Deal and as it must continue to develop in the future if we are to avoid another—and worse—economic crash The latest evidence of that is Ihr Kuli Kmployment Bill sponsored by I he Administration, ? bill which cannot be successful wilhout helping Britain and other countries achieve I heir economic reconstruction and their reintegration in the world economy...
...That is tne meaning of the electoral victory of the British Labor Party...
...Vila...
...Hved »beut 11j.toaoe* people...
...Still the need for postwar association to assure independence received some recognition...
...In I he final analysis, however, Britain's "man...
...Wo have had enough eaperienrc with alliaacea and roanter-alliancea ia thia region...
...In such a federation poverty would have been almost automatically diminished because large economic enterprises of mutual benefit which were beyond the capacity of any singla state could have been undertaken by cooperative effort There would have been an adequate market for the more efficient mass-production factories and a onse^uent lowering of the cost of living...
...The Little Entente of Czechoslovakia, Rumania and Yugoslavia, was formed, largely as a protective measure against Hungarian claims to lost territory...
...Where the News Ends ByWILLIAM HENRY CHAMBERLIN The Case for East European Federation WHEN the Krit World Wir ended, thirteen stetes were In existence in the wide ere* from the Arctic Ocean to the Aegean Sea, between Germany and Russia, which may loosely be called Kastern Europe...
...cooperation of America and Britain...
...Not only were tbero strained relations between individual states, but relations between racial groups in the same state, between Pules and Ukrainians, Serbs and Croats, left much to be desired...
...They disintegrated rapidly before Hitler's method of Combining force with intrigue...
...But it would have been a moat useful and valuable check on aggressive totalitarianism, either in Berlin or in Moscow...
...Croiiroade of Two ('nnfinent...
...As Gross pointa out, an East European federation would be able to undertake projects of flood control and measures of industrialization which would relieve the constant pressure of population on the rural areas...
...Only Greece seems definitely outside the Soviet orbit...
...Pressure on Finland is strong...
...So ? ? time ago this column criticized a pamphlet, The Story of Dumbarton Oak*, issued by the National League of Women Voters, on th* ground that its treatment of the powers of th* Security" Council was inaccurate...
...The Balkan countries were linked together in the loose form of a Balkan Entente...
...This would have been especially true if the Ukraine and the Caucasian Republics, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, which possessed independent governments until these were liquidated by the Red Army, could have been drawn Into the federation...
...However, my conviction remains unchanged that The Story of Dumbarton Oaka is an unhappy example of the kind of propaganda that errs by ignoring and glossing over difficulties, thereby paving the way for later confusion and ultimate disillusionment Precisely the same criticism, In my judgment, is applicable to the film Walchtower Over A atari* ira and to some of the speechmaking propaganda on behalf of Dumbarton Oaks in which certain representatives of the State Department have been engaging...
...Eight of these countries—Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Hungary, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia did not exist aa independent states in 1SU...
...Their emergence waa a result of the evaporation of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, tha defeat of Germany, and the collapse of the Russian Empire...
...No bilateral or tripartite alliance ran guaranie* peace, security and dessocratic progress...
...There were disputed boundary issues...
...Whatever may have been th* military considerations involved, it is politically highly unfortunate that the Balkans and Poland could not have been liberated from the German domination with tha active aid of American and British forces in 1943, or early 1944, that the line of meeting between Soviet and Anglo-American armies could not have been the Dniester, not the Elbe...
...In many cases shore were bitter memories of past injuries, given and received...
...Without ? the war could not have been won...
...There can be no l mied Nations without (he union...
...To aurvive, to accomplish the tasks of reconstruction, to make herself « bulwark of peace, Britain will have to retain the principles of her "managed economy" and con* tinue social and economic controls as instruments essential to her very life...
...So arbitrary combinatioa of twe or three atate* joined in aa alliance by a treaty ran be a substitute for fedcraliaa...
...Recently my attention has been called to other literature put out by thia organization recognizing the difficulties, and imperfections of the proposed voting procedure and recommending that no country be allowed to be a judge in its own case...
...Whether the Soviet Union can digest over a hundred million people of various nationalities in Kastern Europe and whether the United States and Great Britain will acquiesce in the creation of such a formidable unbalance of power in Europe are still open questions...
...II is up (o Ihr administration to demon si rate now that it means what it savs when it preaches international cooperation...
...The heart of his menage, and it is certainly confirmed by the experience of Kastern Ktirop« between the two wars, is expressed as follows in his own words: "Democracy cannot be established in Central and Kaatera Europe without federalism...
...It is true that the obstacles to the working of such a federation would have been formidable...
...Two others — Rumania and Yugoslavia -greatly expanded in area and population...
...Free federation and democratic progress, are unthinkable in an atmosphert of arbitrary annexation (Eastern Poland and th* Baltic States) and puppet governments, created and removed at a nod from Moscow...
...as ? (he position of other countries in the global scheme of things, the basis, the core of a belter world rests within lha Anglo Saion nations because they are economically I he most important and politically I he most advanced...
...la this area, before the outbreak of the second v*erId War...
...Kut IhpHc combinations fell far short of the requirements of a federal union...
...After Eastern Europe had lost its independence the federalist mood was revived and strengthened among the gnvernments-in-exile...
...The principle of nationalism which led to the establishment of many of the naw states was too often untempered by reasonable recognition of the lights of other- nationalise...
...Most important of all, the military strength at the disposal of such a federation would have been an effective barrier against the Nasi Drang nach Onten, and against the more recent Soviet Drang nach Weiten...
...Equal in nuaaber, curiously enough, to the thirteen original American colonial, those thirteen states ef Eastern Europe differed profoundly among themselves in language, culture, historical tradition...
...One •r the free teat might -ha va fcnaa of the pariasi be-tn eea the two wars ia tha creation of aa effective federal aaiea of this area...
...This last state of affairs prevails in Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Rumania and Czechoslovakia...
...International Cooperation during the conflict...
...For now this vast area has escaped from on* totalitarian yoke only to fall under another...
...Composed of small and medium-sized states, such a federation would in all probability have cherished no aggressive designs aga nst any foreign state...
...It is gratifying to know that the League is employing its considerable influence in the direction of a factual analysis of the problems of world organization in some of its literature...
...Poland and Rumania concluded a military alliance...
...They ranged in papulation from tribal Albania, with aboi t a million inhabitants, to Poland, with about 35,000.000 There were ahn considerable divergences as regards economic well-being, natural wealth and cultural development...
...A Polish Socialist, Feliks Gross, has recently put together, in a very informative lit He book, the main projects of political, economic and cultural federalism which have been under discussion in recent years...
...Perhaps the slogan of federation may yet become a rallying cry of freedom for the much suffering peoples of Kastern Europe...
...Columbia University Press...
...The whole tragedy of the aeeead World War aad Ha bleak a ad forbidding aftermath might have been averted if these eeen-triea had becsase thirteen slates of a larger federation, without easterns frontiers and with a pooling of military forces agaiaat aggression...
...Political cooperation without economic implementation would be a snare and a delusion...
...conditions in Hungary and Austria are still obscure...
...It is the mime earn *·*- Ihr alternativ* ia »«>n.<- variety »I telalitariaaasm—and continued poverty, iar »Irina ine taring ¦ · ears agaia of nationalist feuda aad Ike heavy harden of militaries...
...Ihe • ¦•ones...
...By Feliks Cross...
Vol. 28 • September 1945 • No. 35
