STATE OF THE WORLD

...England's decline in sport, from boxing to cricket and tennis, has been the subject of much discussion here (it even affects the race horses, which regularly lose to French competitors in the classic races) but nobody seems to have any good explanation...

...Bardoli, government propagandist, in a recent issue of Szabad Nep...

...Since Rakosi unleashed his pack in June, the sycophantic, press hounds have hardly let a day pass without howling their obedience in the columns of Szabad Nep, the central Communist organ...

...But there is a deep sense of unhappiness in Labor circles...

...As for such a really right-wing socialist as Karolyi Peyer, now in exile in America, the approved way of referring to him—in newspeak —is as "the dog barking with bloodstained lips via the Voice of America...

...Hungary's New Purge By G. E. R. Gedye Budapest OFFICIAL confirmation at the end of July of the dismissal of Minister of Justice Stephen Riesz, means that all but one of those ex-Socialists in Hungary who sold out to Communism for Cabinet and other good posts have now been eliminated...

...Yet Nehru's initiative and the Kelly-Gromyko talks in Moscow were followed with close attention...

...Since the full triumph of Communism, they have been living in complete retirement...

...With her behind iron bars were placed seven well-known former socialist members of parliament, party secretaries, mayors, and other public figures...

...Starting with the foolish Arpad Szakasits, who believed himself a made man when he exchanged the leadership of the Socialist Party for the Presidency of the Hungarian People's Democracy, the socialist collaborators have followed one another rapidly into limbo...

...This compromise really leaves the question open...

...But don't ask me for a sensible reason...

...STATE OF THE WORLD Reports from London and Budapest London Commentary By Norman MacKenzie London IT TOOK nearly a month of fighting in Korea to make people here feel really anxious lest the war spread...

...I don't know one either...

...There is no effective opposition to the leadership left inside Labor ranks, either in home or foreign affairs...

...NORMAN Mac KENZIE is an associate editor of the British publication, New Statesman A Nation, and has contributed to a number of U. S. periodicals...

...The victims were headed by Anna Kethly, that model of a completely fearless, modest, loyal, tad unselfish woman socialist leader who suffered so often for her splendid defense of the cause of the workers during the long years of terror under Admiral Horthy...

...The new crisis almost certainly insures that the conference will be a quiet one...

...The explanation is, of course, a new breakdown in the system of collectivization and canning fruit and vegetables for export against ball bearings and precision tools from Germany, the drought, and the shortage of fodder...

...it is now proposed, under the Group Areas Act, to set up separate districts in which each "race" would be confined, as in a ghetto, only to emerge on the most stringent conditions...

...The problem here, however, is the old one...

...The first public reaction was that the Kremlin had miscalculated and that, faced with speedy UN action, it would cut its losses if the North Koreans were forced back...

...The British public, aware that war will bring terrible destruction and suffering to this island, whoever might ultimately win, and having just begun to enjoy the fruits of economic recovery, has not yet decided which course is right...

...vilification a series of arrests were carried out earlier this month which have shocked socialists throughout the world...

...But there are others, both Labor and Tories, who believe that the Soviet Union is determined to promote the extension of Communism by any means, even armed force, and that the only way to check this is by a show of strength and resolution...

...wants a major war, and that the danger lies in both countries drifting into it...

...But at least there is a case here for UN action in defense of human rights, though it is felt that the chances of action are small now there are larger things to worry about...

...Some of them are shortly to reappear in public for the last time in the leading roles at fresh show trials...

...Diplomatic pressure would only strengthen Malan's hold, it is said...

...and the Home Office released an official handbook on atomic civil defense...

...The fear is that somehow the Americans will become entangled with the Chinese Communists over Formosa and that this, through the Sino-Soviet treaty, will lead to a general conflagration...

...Bardoli's explanation was that women are queueing from "custom and cussedness...

...But there are many more calling for a revision of wages policy, for an attack on high living costs, and a larger building program...

...The latest wave of arrests is believed to be part of the campaign, orders for which were recently brought back from Moscow by the Communist economic expert, Varga, , who was himself called there to stand on the carpet and be berated for the failure of Communism to establish itself in the hearts of Hungarian factory workers...

...Even if war is avoided now, it is said, rearmament is here for a long time...

...Even if it failed, little would haVe been lost...

...defense spending was increased by an amount equal to the entire revenue of the British Government...

...The arrests may also be intended to distract popular attention from the catastrophic food shortage, admitted at long last by Mrs...

...In any case, the seating of a Mao delegate is declared British policy and, since the Chinese are not overtly involved in the Korean conflict, to continue this policy would not be an act of appeasement...

...Now they are busy impairing factory discipline and encouraging 'norm-slackers.' We have turned the searchlights, on these old traitors to unmask and render them harmless...

...Whatever the reason for the wave of Communist terror against the real leaders of the masses, the case of a woman like Anna Kethly must not be passed over in total silence...

...If there were any truth in Ra-kosi's charges, it could only redound to the credit of Hungarian socialism...

...The Malan Government, ignoring the decisions of the Hague Court, recently announced that it intended to go ahead with the incorporation of South-West Africa into the Union, whatever the UN's views might be...

...What can be done...

...It has dropped the specific proposals for nationalization that were in the last election platform— sugar and cement, for instance—in deference to the feeling that these were an electoral handicap and economically unimportant...

...If prices are high, there is still a good deal of loose money about, enough for people to spend $35 for an evening at the Glynde-bourne opera-house, for instance, attached to a lovely Elizabethan mansion in the Sussex hills, where if you can get a ticket you can enjoy some of the world's best performances of Mozart...

...To this opinion, negotiation seems useless save in so far as it buys time for the West to rearm...

...His books Include "Heir* to the Hapsburgs" and "Betrayal in Central Europe...

...That no more notice has yet been taken of it in London by British Labor organs, to whom Kethly has been well known for 40 years, has shocked both Austrian and emigre Hungarian socialists...

...This document embodies the sense of the Dorking discussion earlier this year...

...A few diehard Tories blame it on the Labor Government and rationing...

...These," declared Rakosi with that Asiatic virulence of language which he acquired so thoroughly during his long years of preparation in the Dom Comintern in Moscow, "flung their hatred and filth against the Soviet Union...

...Having learned the lesson of appeasement, the British want to stop aggression, and there is a profound belief that the United Nations is the correct instrument for maintaining peace...

...They had vainly hoped, by living in obscure retirement far from the political world which they knew they could no longer influence, to be able to end their days in peace in their native land, rejecting earlier exile...

...It is, unfortunately, quite untrue to suggest that the internationally known—and, therefore, marked —men and women who formerly led Hungary's workers can make any attempt to help their oppressed comrades...

...At this stage, however, it is only fair to report, opinion was divided as well as confused...

...The National Executive of the Party has met and approved the draft of the next election program, and it will now go out to local branches for discussion before the national conference this fall...

...Workers, for instance, in the OZD steel works, at the Danuvia concern, in the Meszhart shipyards, and in many other concerns have been denounced for slacking, "plan sabotage," "norm-evasion," and sabotage—all at the bidding of Communism's Public Enemy No...

...The ominous headline, "Navy Reserves Called," is something that always clutches at an Englishman's stomach because, in this island, the manning of the Fleet is the prelude to general mobilization...

...Free petrol has made the middle-classes mobile again, and the roads are full of trippers...

...II Before war clouds blew up in the Far East, there was a good deal of uneasiness here about the course of events in South Africa...

...It is, however, possible—and to be hoped_ that socialist trade union leaders still employed have been trying here and there to do their duty to the people who elected them...

...There is a sweeping Act, ostensibly aimed at suppressing the Communists, which permits Malan to prosecute anyone who supports "the ends of Communism...

...Already, legislation has been passed carrying segregation to lengths that would be considered ludicrous in Mississippi...

...Translated from newspeak into normal language, they can only mean that the social democrats have been trying to protect the exploited Hungarian workers from some of the worst features of the slavery im* posed on them by the Communists...

...The crisis has made the internal controversies of the Labor Party seem pretty small beer...

...Deliberately, she suggested, they demand carrots if potatoes are available, and potatoes if there are carrots...

...Many lists have been published of democratic socialists expelled from the Iron Workers and other unions...

...Summer events, from Ascot to the Test matches, are packed...

...Perhaps, this argument runs, the admission of Communist China to the Security Council might smack of diplomacy under duress, perhaps it might achieve nothing, but is not this gamble worth making as the price of avoiding war...

...This summer, England has had a surprising atmosphere of normality...

...Socialist sympathies will be confined to the victims of the savage campaign launched on June 18 by the Communist boss, Mathyas Ra-kosi, against the survivors of genuine social democracy in Hungary...

...The case can be made either way...

...The touring cricket team from the West Indies, a magnificent group of sportsmen, have skittled out England's best batsmen to win two out of the three Tests so far played...

...As defined, this means that anyone who criticizes any aspect of the Nationalists' anti-democratic program is supporting the ends of Communism...

...nor the U.S.S.R...

...Then, on top of all this, came the House of Commons debate on defense, with Churchill going beyond Minister of Defense Shinwell in his gloomy estimate of Soviet power...

...But then the UN forces were being beaten...

...This seems silly to me...

...And that must mean cuts in house-building, the social services, and capital investment...

...the call was limited, it is true, to reserves for the Far East Fleet, but coupled with a series of scare headlines, it was sufficient to bring home a feeling that war might be around the corner...

...It is possible that the annual conference may change this wording, and insist on more specific phrasing, but I think this unlikely...

...But, with a nod towards the Left, there is a general pledge to nationalize any industries which require this treatment, on grounds of monopoly or inefficiency, in the opinion of subsequent Cabinets...

...No genuine socialist will shed a tear over any of them...

...They have named and denounced a whole series of factories, and the Socialist trade unionists in them...

...That means, too, calling a halt to the march of the Welfare State, or, at least, slowing down its pace...

...In the midst of this campaign of G. E. R. GEDYE ranges over Central and Southeastern Europe for the London Daily Herald...

...1, democratic socialists, called "democratic right wing rats...

...True, on the agenda of the conference are a number of resolutions calling for more Socialism...

...This action will bring another large group of Africans under the jurisdiction of the Afrikaner racialists, who are doing all they can to set up a dictatorship of the Dutch-speaking whites over Africans, Indians, and other ethnic minorities...

...Is there some settlement, it was asked, that can be reached without outright victory on either side...

...This argument, of course, rests on the assumption that neither the U.S...

...Going about in these last few weeks, I've had the impression that the war was a dream (or nightmare) and that nothing has really changed since 1939...

...The mood at the moment is one of caution, and that usually means the line of the leadership is taken without much demur...

...The decision is postponed and a sharp cleavage in the Party averted...

...Electoral procedure is being gerrymandered and large groups deprived of the vote, to ensure that the Nationalists remain in power—their present majority is tiny—and can establish, eventually, their racialist republic...