THE BALTIC INCIDENT
DALLIN, DAVID J.
East and West The Baltic Incident By David J. Dallin APRIL. 1950. Soviet Foreign Ministoi Vishin sky angrily piotests to U S Ambassadoi Knk that un American "B-29" has vio latod the frontier...
...I fold my companionhow he had bought these gorgeous fabrics, how he had loved them and given them...
...Millions ol dollars m insurance that might have boon paid by 1 .loyds would have seemed a crude and stupid and inadequate substitute for tin ; lost beauty...
...The Soviet frontier was being \ iolated by tinman plants not once, but re praWlly...
...Having penetrated twelve miles into Soviet air spare the American plane was in torcoptod by a Russian patrol and ordered to land...
...It disobeyed and continued on its way...
...Once I disturbed myself to the extent of going near enough to read the date: 1508...
...In that case, these men were taken prisoner and handed ieer to the MV1...
...not as the result of faulty navigation, but by design The Soviet assistant military attache in Berlin was received by No 2 Na7.i Merman Goerlng The People's Commissar foi Defense, the atuoht said, had given bordei troops the order not to fire on flermap planes Hying ovei Soviet territory "as long as such flights do not occur frequently " But on Apid 22, 1941...
...during this time of all times when humanity seems reduced to its lowest terms, we have had wide and official acknowledgment of the value of art...
...Yet this tiny and temporr.rv seeming product of man's love has endured THE INTRODUCTION to the catalog of this collection was written by two curators of the Vienna Kunsthistorisch.es Museum...
...Now the sober and much-worried little statesmen of Vienna find themselves the heritors of all the swag gathered by their elegant emperors...
...The account of his princelv gifts to our museums was fresh in my mind As we passed through that gorgeous display of Gobelin tapestries from his collection, mv thought naturally reverted to him...
...But, even assuming that it was armed, is it likelv that a lone American plane would take on a whole squadron of Soviet fighters'' Is it possible that it would have "continued to proceed into Soviet territory" in defiance of an ordei b\ a well-armed air patrol'' Plainly, the Russian fliers gave the American plane short shrift, reacting to a wholly mad vertent territorial violation by "shooting firs' and asking questions afterward/' IF MOSCOW felt sate in making its distorted statement, it must have been sure thai there were no survivors to tell the world the true :,!oi'\ of the unprovoked armed attack But hew could it be sure of the Biers' tragic late it its air patrol simply chased the American craft .1, <pin Soviet skies'.' There are two possible' answers: 1. The American plane may nevei have leached the Soviet border Perhaps...
...In the end, the great Morgan may inknown only as the man who for a brief mouieM owned these precious things...
...East and West The Baltic Incident By David J. Dallin APRIL...
...the Knssian secret police Or 2. An alternative possibility is that the plane was shot at and crushed on Soviet territory To avoid investigation, the MVD ordered a liferaft thrown into the sea as camouflage...
...Many people even governments--seem to agree with John Milton thai a work of art is more precious than life itself, for it is the essence, the very sum and symbol of the best of life...
...When the Italians, the French, the Germans and the British have thought to make a proper return, thev have sent us pictures, statues and tapestries t'.i THERE HAPPENED TO BE a comfortable couch opposite a painting by Albrecht Dueror And it was there that I feel to musing...
...at the same time hooting at the Russians...
...In their gratitude they .send the cream of their heritage to he enjoyed by the American citizens who voteu for the Marshall Plan...
...These bits of canvas with designs smeared on them by longdead artists, these fragile tapestries, these gaudy jewels wrought by supreme craftsmen for silly queens- -many of them have comedown through the changes and chances of more than four centuries...
...Some crew mem hi is escaped when the plane went down before the Knssian attack, as evidenced by from the :lael that a life-raft was found later...
...After the latter returned the fire, the American craft tinned and /lew nut to sea...
...I inevitably thought of him as our emperor-collector, in a sense, our Habsburg...
...Soviet Foreign Ministoi Vishin sky angrily piotests to U S Ambassadoi Knk that un American "B-29" has vio latod the frontier of Soviet Latvia and engaged in h running battle with Russian fighters...
...Navy...
...In said, 180 more violations had taken place But had the Soviet fighter pilots fired on these mass invaders'' Instead, "the Soviet Border Patrol filed a protest on each occasion with the German representatives" And the Soviet Am bassador delivered a note expressing confidence that "the German Government will take step.-, to put an end to the violations...
...So the State Be parlincnl look charge...
...Malabar, with sufficient escort to ensure complete security...
...How many men of violence have reached the heights of power' How many have tumbled down in defeat and disgrace' It suddenly came to me thai in this violent and uncertain world the most fragile things have the best chance of survival...
...Ht did not undei stand that Stalin would never give the order to fire on a Nazi plane After this, German violations of the Soviet frontiei continued to multiply The height ..| macabce irony was reached on June 21, 1941, at 9 30 p. m , when Nazi Foreign Minister von Kibbentrop's aide...
...Here is this picture by Albrecht Dueror the massacre of Christian saints...
...It was there th.r the much diminished Habsburgs came to then end some thirty years ago...
...What revolutions...
...Suppose these paintings, these tapestries, these precious jewels had gonedown to the bottom of the ocean...
...Here is a lesson in values We often talk of human beings as though thev had cockeyed notions of worth...
...Within six hours, German guns ami planes were to open iheir furious attack along the entire Russian border from the Baltic to he Black Seu Hut tlie Soviet Ambussador hud merely arrived U> protest anew Since the earlier complaint...
...1140...
...These men, top experts and writers, are servants of the tiny republic of Austria...
...Ten American fliers would be alive today had the Kremlin shown them a little of the lone, suffering indulgence it once reserved for the Nazi Air Forces The Home Front Art Endures By William E. Bohn THE OTHER DAY I was loafing about among the treasures of the Vienna collection up at the Metropolitan Museum The news Ihat the U.S...
...A com nuinique was issued to the effect that, if the plane met with disaster, it happened over the I',, Ilic...
...This account is open to serious question...
...I had, naturally, a couple of girls with mo They are a great help in the appreciation ef the fine arts, especially of such jewels as tinHabsburgs assembled for us...
...it would expose the men in the Kremlin as a band of liars and cutthroats Hence, it would be too dangerous to keep any witnesses alive Nor would it bo safe to keep the Americans in prison...
...Baron Ernst von Weizsaclier, received the Soviet Aiubassaor...
...Navy had guaranteed the safe delivery of these knicknaeks of the Habsburgs set me to thinking...
...As we threaded our way out through the vast halls of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, I found myself unable to suppress a humbling thought that insisted on invading my stream of consciousness...
...Navy has announced Ihat the missing Navy plane was not armed and, hence, could not have opened fire...
...What wars have swept over our con linents...
...But in poor old Moi gan they had not the slightest interest...
...rolls of exposed film and a topographical map, A detailed list of the eighty violations was handed the (Jernian representative In not a single case had a Soviet patrol opened lire Transmitting the Soviet note to Berlin, the charge added a word of caution: "It is very likelv that serious incidents are to be expected if (Jernian plane...
...Their eye glowed as they looked at those magic presentations of mythical scenes...
...continue to llv across the Soviet bordei " But Werner von Tippelskirch, the German charge d'affaires, was wrong...
...The canvas measures about a yard eace way...
...Since the war...
...Hying ovei || e Bailie, it approached an area where secret maneuvers were in progress or naval installations had been constructed...
...I had just been reading a biography of J. Pierpont Morgan...
...Empires have risen and fallen Countless conqueror . have disappeared...
...You could easily carry it off in your arms With one stroke of your hand you could destrov it...
...Ad miral Connolly, Commander nf the I'.S Naval Forces in London, arranged transport in the U.S.S...
...beyond the Soviet frontier In this case, loo, survivors may have been found and turned o'-cr to the MVD It would be vain, however, to hope that the ¦ uivivors will ever return home and tell us the truth If the real story could be told, it would probably show that the tragic incident was a case of premeditated murder...
...Americans have sent wheat, machinery, coal, and technical aid of all sorts over a great part of the world...
...thev mitfht eventually smuggle news out via letters oi through their fellow inmates * * MARCH...
...Arkady Sobolev, Sec ietaiy-Ceiural of the Soviet Foreign Comniis sariat, had to summon the (Jernian charge d'affaires and "urgently request" an end to the "continuing violations of the USSR boundary by (I'erman planes'' because, within three weeks, no less than eighty such cases had occurred' One German plane had made a forced landing, near Kovno, m Itussia, In it were found a earn era...
...In the first place, the U.S...
...It was a mass operation carried on by a pie-Hitlerite king of Persia...
...Ameiiean bankers and industrialists pass even as d Kuropearfemperors - and leave hardly a wradt behind...
...Yet here it is among, these treasures carefully transported by the U.S...
...The mystery is somewhat clarified when it develop Ihat a US Navy patrol plane, having prosum ably straved oil eour.se, has indeed vanished over the eastern Baltic, cat lying ten crew members to an uncertain fate The ollieial Soviet version of what happened is the...
Vol. 33 • April 1950 • No. 17
