WASHINGTON AND THE NATION
Washington and the Nation iterle on the Italian Peace Treaty By Jonathan Stout %-f TASHINGTON,- D. C.—Even »a the Italian peace treaty wai * t bringsigned in Paris last Monday, in Waahington...
...In the Eisler case discussion in this space on October 2(5, it was also predicted: , "Whether Congress takes the direction of new legislation (in dealing with Fifth Column activities) or merely dusts off the laws now on the books, the question will present a problem to American liberals...
...Henry Breckcnridge and Christopher Emmet...
...The Liberal Stand Tr < HAT problem now presents itself in That problem now presents itself in tangible form in the Lillenthal case, the question currently debated here being whether liberals should go to the defensa of Lilienthal or let him fend for himself, Larking a positive program or positive yardstick ot their own, liberals here fare only a choice of defensive positions...
...and, behind that, of the relations which areto prevail between that cector of Europe which is Russian-dominated, and the rest of the world...
...1 It is understood that the Berle Memo' ranJum and the'principle it enunciates return to the principles of the Atlantic Charter—is receiving powerful endorsement and political support United States Senatorial support for it is already assured...
...The Committee's next session ik tentatively slated for Fell...
...t'lnr with tho situation In Poland arising out of a breach of the understandlntr arrived at on which the Polish people relied...
...While the general public is growing more and more aware of this problem and is turning anxiously to ways and means for protecting itself against Filth Column betrayal and sabotage, the liberals who constitute the most advanced segment of the general public have not yet formulated a plan "'which would 'provide such protection and which could at thc^same time command public confidence and approval...
...That is not and cannot be spelled out in the Italian treaty alone, but must await the fitting together of the totality of peace treaties...
...His government has not yet given evidence that it is entitled to guard the peace of a great part of the world...
...the Senate and American public opinion will be able to...
...Among developments following the Eisler drama on Capitol Hill were the following: Senator Ferguson (R., Mich...
...Common Can* Common cause, of which Mrs...
...And, on Monday, as the diplomats in Paris signed provisionally for their governments, a light was laid to the Senate fuse with publication- of the Berle Memorandum by ' Ihe Common Cause Committee...
...The liberals failed to pick np the loose ball while there was an opportunity...
...The New Leader was one of the few papers in the country which protested ineffectually several months ago when the War Department concurred with orders of the Bureau of tho Budget to destroy all records of Communists in the War Department, Navy Department, the Army, Navy, Air Corps and Marine Corps, National Commander Lewis Starr of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and his staff gave official approval and indorsement on Monday to the drive to outlaw the Communist Party in the United States throught court action...
...We shauld seek a more satisfactory agreement, Berle urges, because he regards the treaty in its present form as JWi apparent violation of solemn promises by the American Government to the people of Italy at the time of the surrender...
...V.K Destruction of Records chairman brewster of the Senate War Investigating Committee announced that his committee will hold open hearings on charges that the War Department has illegally destroyed certain records...
...When this shall have happened...
...Its prospects for success are definitely on the upgrade...
...but that it recommend to the Senate that ratification of ,' this treaty be withheld for the time - being, and until the other treaties embod ring the European settlement, particularly those of Germany and austria are negotiated and are placed before, the Senate and the American peo. pie...
...This is a subject on which former Assistant Secretary Berle can and does Speak authoritatively, because the drafting of those pledges involved his active participation in his capacity as Assistant Secretary of State...
...The United States Is already strug...
...Former Gov...
...Thin should be regarded as a warning to liberal leaders to bestir themsi-lren and advance, while the advancing is good, a pontive and constructive program to deal with the Communist Fifth Column problem...
...Even more seriously, it directly violates Allied pledges to the Italian people made by President Roosevelt in his appeals to the Italians to overthrow Mussolini and come over to the side of the United Nations against Hitler...
...announced that his Executive Expenditures subcommittee will undertake a thorough investigation of the Administration's handling of lend-lease dealings with the Soviet Union...
...Either possibility tfiight be foreclosed if the treaty were litified now...
...This pledge was properly read •tslnst the background of the Atlantic Charter and the repeated declarations war alms...
...A. A. Berle, Jr., formerly Assistant Secretary of State and recently Ambassador to Brazil, closely analyzes the terms and the political realities of the Italian peace treaty...
...Others now have the ball, and they are running with it...
...It is in fact the long fuse, now lighted, which leads in the direction of the eventual explosion of the Communist Fifth Column as it has existed to date in the United States...
...The Common Cause Committee includes in its membership such persons as Sumner Welles, A. A. Berle, Jr., Dorothy Thompson, Anne o'Hare MeCormick, Edgar Ansel Mowrer, Louis Fischer, Brooks Atkinson, Charles R. Diebold, Dr...
...Berle's conclusion is a recommendation that: , "The wisest course would be to urge the Foreign Relations Committee of the Senate to study and conduct hearings on this treaty...
...Natalie Wales,Latham of New York is chairman, Is spearheading the fight for the principles of the Atlantic Charter...
...Therefore, logic directs they be considered together as a whole rather than piece-meal...
...The nub of the liberal problem resides in the negative position liberals have so far taken on the Communist Fifth Column problem...
...this pledge," Berle says, "was that tho United States would assure the preservation of the essential nationhood g Italy...
...form a judgment ' as to whether all the treaties should be ratified...
...411 Armistice Not a Treaty among his reasons for withholding judgment on the Italian treaty, Berle Stresses that it is not really a peace freaty but an armistice, or temporary modus vivtndi, between the Eastern and Western powers, produced by the ¦ struggle of powee politics...
...Berle points out that this/ would "turn the Adriatic into a lake dominated by Marshal Tito...
...the Italian peace treaty contains a number of flagrant violations of the Atlantic Charter...
...The treaty will mean one thing if general disarmament is finally worked out so that the entire Yugoslav frontier and the Yugoslav side of the Adriatic becomes a- peaceful non-military strip of territory...
...It will mean qujte another thing if actually the entire Dalmation and east Adriatic coast remains, as now, a heavily-armed military frontier...
...Berle says that "on the political and territorial side the draft treaty is in the nature of a 'blank check.' Its real significance can only be filled in by other settlements not yet made...
...It began dramatically Thursday of last week when Eisler, under Congressional subpoena, refused to testify under oath and was cited in contempt of the Congress of the United States, among other charges...
...That long-range prediction of last October 26 bore fruit in Washington in the past lew days...
...Hut that was just the beginning of several developments, some of which are of particular interest to anti-Communist liberals and progressives...
...Communists in Government By Jonathan Stout washington, d. c. — Three-anda-half months ago—on October 26, 1946 —it was reported in this column: "There is more than a mere isolated incident in the disclosure several days ago in a radio address by Louis Budcnz that Gerhard Eisler, alias Hans Berger, is the Comintern representative in the United States and the real behind-thescenes dictator of the American Communist Party...
...In speaking out publicly against the Violation of those pledges, Berle is therefore the voice of America's conscience, honor and integrity...
...An Injunction probably will be sought to force the Communist Party out of legal existence...
...George s. Counts, Russell W. Davenport, Major George Fielding Kliot, Bishop Austin Pardue, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., Wilbur Forrest, Newbold Morris, Rabbi Louis L. Mann, Bishop G. Ashton Oldham, Bishop Wallace E. Conkling, Carl Carmer, Dorothy Canheld Fisher, Lyman Bryson, Mrs...
...In the vacuum thus created, there am been expressed by competent persons in Washington an anxiety lest the failure of liberal leaden: to formulate avd ad' ranee a positive plan- may lead to the adaption of an extreme program ad...
...The memorandum, drawn up by the Ron...
...Berle Staffs: "So long as the Italian treaty in uw ratified, there is a possibility of a more ttAisfactory and sound agreement either ?jf negotiation between Italy and Yugos/an'a (which hat been svggtsted be/Sf*) or by clarification of the European situation, or both...
...A member of the House Un-American Activities Committee announced that the committee will investigate whether the State Department "through connivance or bureaucratic red tape" made It easy for a Communist spy ring to operate In this country...
...Earle of Pennsylvania, who was President Roosevelt's special ambassador extraordinary to Istanbul during the war, issued a blast against Communist influence In tho Justice and State Departments...
...the peace of the Mediterranean and with it of Europe under this treaty would be substantially placed in the hands of Marshal Tito...
...Clearly we cannot afford the creation of another situation in which a people believes that it has been betrayed...
...David E. Lillenthal faced an uphill nghl^for Senate approval of his nomination as head of the Atomic Energy Com* mission because of allegations that he took no positive action to halt Infiltration of Communist In TV A. The latter two developments probably will prove of most immediate lnterestxto genuine liberals...
...Washington and the Nation iterle on the Italian Peace Treaty By Jonathan Stout %-f TASHINGTON,- D. C.—Even »a the Italian peace treaty wai * t bringsigned in Paris last Monday, in Waahington and in New York th« train of a fuse was being laid to the United States Senate which will offer the world a last chance to transform that fictitious "peace" document into a real peace treaty...
...Behind it, however, is the support of a number of politically powerful national organisations...
...vmicrd by unqualified quarters...
...It follows that, before ratifying, further light is needed on the ultimate relationship of the parties immediately involved — Yugoslavia and Italy...
Vol. 30 • February 1947 • No. 7
