WHERE THE NEWS ENDS
CHAMBERLIN, WILLIAM HENRY
Where the News Ends By William Henry Chamberlin Poland's "Election" Challenge *<rTT1rHS Polish Provisional Government of National X Unity shall be pledged to the holding of free and unfettered...
...Eastern Europe is pot only i minor si but stupidly mistaken...
...The question is: where do we go from here...
...Large sections of Polish political opinion remain completely unrepresented in the political life of the country: The Peasant Party, which many foreign observers testify would win a free election 2 easily, has been too large to suppress outright...
...But its active members have been subjected to every conceivable form of chicanery and intimidation, including beating, torture and murder...
...dustrioiis collection of the radio and journalist!* bouquets that were thrown at the Yalta Agreement, printing in parallel columns the first-hand report* of how Poland's "free and unfettered election" was carried out...
...In a reaction against Fascist oppression, they were naturally inclined to overlook and minimize the shortcoming of all opponents of Fascism...
...The methods used by the (Polish) Government in its efforts to eliminate the participation by the Polish Peasant Party in the elections include political arrests and murders, compulsory enrollment of Polish Peasant Party members in the 'bloc' political parties, dismissal of Polish Peasant Party members from their employment, searches of homes, attacks by secret police and members of the Communist Party on Polish Peasant Party premises and party congresses, suepension and restriction by Government authorities on Polish Peasant Party meetings and suepension of parly activities in twenty-eight districts, suppression of the party press and limitation of circulation of party papers, and arrests of the editorial staff of the party bulletin and of the timet* Ludowet...
...This is why it took the best elements of Italian Socialism three years to raise the banner of opposition to Communism and embark on a struggle in which not only the lofty principles but the very life of their people is at stake...
...They merely con' firm and fill out the picture which has been drawn by every foreign correspondent of independence and intellectual integrity who haa visited Poland during the Ifst two years...
...a » TllE evidence is all in...
...The details of the merciless campaign to destroy any possibility of a free ballot have been spelled out in convincing detail in the brilliant despatches from Poland of Marguerite Higgins, in The New York Herald Tribune, and in the able reports of Sydney Cruson, in The New York Times...
...They were unable to understand the deeper significance of tbe horrible purges, of the Stalin-Hitler Pact, of prisons more densely crowded than in Mussolini's Italy...
...Nothing but "pure democracy" was advanced a* the political objective of Italy1* Communist...
...so obviously unable to face the chances of a free election as possessing any legitimate claim to be considered the Government . of Poland...
...It was the oily nation, in the world where Fascist rule lasted for almost an entire generation, where the younger part of the people never experienced anything but Mussolini's regime...
...To promote the alliance with Nenni'* Socialists, inanv element* of true Communism were opportunistically put aside...
...Nowhere is the understanding of Communist objectives and the critical attitude V toward the Soviet experiment on so low a - level as in Italy...
...In the 20"* and 30's, when the world was learning of the practices of Russian Communism, the Italian anti-Easels'* looked upon Russia through a dense fog of purely' Italian sentiments...
...We should break off diplomatic relations or, if the argument is raised Uiat we need a source of" information, we should withdraw 'our Ambassador, ' as we have done in Spain...
...And now the Communist Party wa* prepared to replace de Ca*peri's Government by a new coalition, in which Pielrn Nenni would become I he 1'iemier of Italy and Palmiro Togliatli formally the deputy but in fact his Im<ss, A -cries of internal crises would inevitably ensue...
...democratic Socialism is heat represented by Saragat's dissident...
...We should make it clear that no loans or credits involving American participation will be granted to any Polish regime that' does not derive its authority from a genuinely "free and unfettered election...
...The most active leaders of the Polish Underground, one of tbe best organized anti-Nazi forces in Europe, were treacherously arrested when they naively accepted the ''word of honor" of a Soviet police agent that they would receive aafe conduct...
...An Editorial— Good News — and Bad — From Italy THE separation of an important wing of the Italian Socialist movement from Pietro *Nenoi'» party is a major event in the political life of Italy and of Europe as well...
...Giuseppe Saragat and the emergence of his new party have put an end to this fateful evolution...
...Pietro Nenni's party, or whatever remains of it, is doomed by both its own illusions and the shrewd tactics of Italy's Communists, while the masses of the people have become victims of systematic misrepresentation and the awful ignorance which characterizes a|l »f Europe today...
...And we would stand lo* lose nothing by taW a vigorous stand...
...In the meantime, the old party, caught between two fires, is hound lo lose its ration titre...
...and Communism was considered among its most important opponent*, They were rather inclined to idealize what to them seems the antipode to Fascist terrorism...
...We should publicly and officially express the hope that the Polish people will succeed in overthrowing by force a regime which has given them no opportunity to repudiate it by peaceful and legal means...
...Such action would be fully justified by the express wording of the compact into which we entered at Yalta...
...It would be a tremendous stimulus lo the morale of the gallant Polish Maquis, who have already reduced the authority of the puppet government to a nullity in large areas of the country...
...Governmental coalitions other than with Communist participation now become possible...
...while other leftish-lotalitarian tendencies are inherent in Italian Communism...
...1H . The ,idea <hat we can peacefully divide up n* world with Russia end buy security in this hemisphere' by acquiescing in the stamping out of the last spudn' of liberty in...
...We know in advance that the American Note will elicit regretful acquiescence in London and either contemptuous neglect or insolent mendacity in Moscow...
...At least from those of them who sera misguided but honest, who were not conscious iH out appealers and fellow-travelers...
...With then rest the only hope* for s (see and slsble European continent...
...Though smaller in membership than the old Socialist Party, it possesses everything necessary for rapid growth...
...An American diplomatic offensive of this kind would have the effect of a thunderclap throughout Eastern Europe...
...The Yalta Agreement was treated as a worthless •crap of paper from the moment when it was signed...
...The new movement rsn absorb all the element* able and willing to fight for human right* and a free world after the bloodiest of all wars.e The "had new*" i* that, once again, in Italy, lb* international Communist line of "unity" and "merger" has split the old Socialist political apparatus...
...The significance of the event is so much the greater as it is the first move in a new direction in the troubled atmosphere of postwar Europe—the hist but certainly not the last...
...arouse a bitter hatred of Americans.*1 more aid and comfort we can give to the forces of freedom behind the iron curtain, the less resource* Moscow will possess for its propaganda offensive ks other parts of the world...
...This it to declare, on the basis of the overwhelming evidence, that the forthcoming "election" is a fraudulent sham, that we ran nolunger recognise the usurping, carpet-bagging group of Comintern agents that is...
...It would shake every Red Quisling regime from the Baltic to the Adriatic...
...Read Marguerite Higgins* account of the beating and torture of a worker in Lody because he would not withdraw his adhesion to the Peasant Party, and then read, if you can suppress a very strong natural impulse lo nausea, this paragraph in the Yalta Declaration, revolting in its unctuoul hypocrisy: "By this declaration we reaffirm our faith in the principles of the Atlantic Charter, our pledge in the declaration by the United Nations and our determination to build in cooperation with other peace-loving nations world order .under law, dedicated la peace, security, freedom and general well-being of all mankind...
...Note addressed by the American Government to the Soviet and British governments as co-aignstories of the Yalta Agreement on January S, 1947...
...Incidentally, what is happening in Poland should call for some very humble and explicit recantations from certain radio commentators and lay and eccle* siastical leaders of public opinion who tried to' convince tbe American public that Yalta represented t triumph of Atlantic Charter principles ami human liberties...
...The young party has it in its hands to open a new political road for Italy...
...Yalta Agreement of February 11, 1945, signed by Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill...
...Nenni** party is becoming historically useless...
...In international affairs, an Italy moving into I lie Soviet sphere could not but trail lo numerous and serious complication...
...Is anyone, inside or outside State Department, still so naive a* to believ,.*^ any Communist-dominated regime'anywhere cienL* anything but an enemy of thia country...
...The Communist fifth coin**} offensive againat America is worldwide in scorns, William Lawrence, on the basis of a recent trip South America, reports in The New'York Times that Communist parties are a mam channel for the dii...
...they continued to worship Stalin's Government and to praise Molotov's policies, even though these oflen ran counter to the beet interest* of the Italian people...
...It seems lo me that there is nnljHfh* lpju«aj, honorable, atraightforward thing for the United Stales Government to do...
...To keep his membership together and to gain votes, Signor Togliatli assumed an air of friendliness toward the Vatican, went lo church, and never spoke of the godleis movement...
...The leadership of the new party must be congratulated on its courage, clear vision, and faithful adherence to the highest principles of democracy...
...Where the News Ends By William Henry Chamberlin Poland's "Election" Challenge *<rTT1rHS Polish Provisional Government of National X Unity shall be pledged to the holding of free and unfettered elections as soon as possible on the basis of universal1 suffrage and secret ballot...
...It would be an excellent idea if someone, under some such title as "Oh Yeah...
...General Marshall, just before he left China, declared uSet Chinese Communist propaganda (dutifully re-echom by a corps of Fair Eastern fellow-travelers in tin* country, as the new Secretary...
...would make aa j...
...semination of anti-American propaganda...
...It was actually striving for a merger with the Communists, a merger which, given the numerical relationship of the two parties, would have implied the utter subordination of the Socialist movement to Palmiro Togliatti's and Joseph Stalin's leadership...
...The "good new*" is thai, once again, in Italy (a* m Germany) enough independent Socialist democrat* have remained lo make a fresh Mart, to make a new beginning...
...The Communists were well able to adjust themselves to their precarious status: face to face with Tito's dictatorship, in their hearts friendly toward the Yugoslav aggressor, they assumed an ambiguous position in respect to Tile's drive for Trieste, to as not to lose popular support...
...State might have added) "has given plain evidence of a determined purpose to mislead the Chinese people and the world and to...
...In its concessions to Communism, the Italian Socialist Party went further than any other member of the former Socialist International...
Vol. 30 • January 1947 • No. 3
