LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
RUSSIA AND GERMANY (By CABLE FROM MOSCOW)
Ssa,—A few evenings ago I heard a broadcast in the B.B.C.'s Pacific service in which Mr. Wilson Harris expressed astonishment at the fact that the Soviet Union is so insistent on a central democratic government for Germany. Will Mr. Harris permit a Russian historian to reply to his astonishment by en expression of ours? Is it possible that he does not understand that for us this is one of the most important of all problems connected with Germany? To us the question of establishing an all-German democratic government is the question whether or not those Conditions will obtain whereby mankind will be guaranteed against a third world shambles. It is much easier to explain to the British why we consider the establishment of democratic government for Germany a matter of primary importance than it is to explain it to Americans. When we say British we mean, of course,. simple people, " men in the street," those who sincerely want to understand what is going on. The sheer astuteness of diplomats and political publicists often prevents them from seeing that which is obvious to ordinary common sense.
It must not be forgotten that when Russians think of war they visualise something quite different from Americans. According to American computations war with Germany brought the United States an income -of $52,000,000,000. According to Rus-sian computations the 'war with Germany brought Russia the destruction of 1,710 towns and over 70,000 villages and the loss of 7,000,000 human lives. A fresh German aggression does not strike Americans as being in the least likely. But fresh aggression against Rutsia is not only dreamed of but is already being very obviously hinted at by slippery travellers from " Bizonia " who visit New York for instructions. Their venomous attacks on the Soviet Union, made quite recklessly before Meetings of their compatriots; prove that Nazis and Nazism are still very much alive and that Fascist Poison is still virulent and infectious. It is quite possible that these agitators have made their own free interpretation of the instructions given them and have displayed more zeal than their job demands at the moment. But the fact remains that in " Bizonia " no seripus effort has been made to introduce democracy and carry out effective denazification ; what is more, the Schumachers are beginning to adopt a tone very reminiscent of Goebbels and their fulminations are printed in agitation sheets most generously supplied with newsprint.
When we Soviet people see all this we say with full conviction that the democratisation of Germany must not be put off any longer under any pretext whatsoever. To ensure peace in Europe two things are essential. Firstly, a genuinely democratic government must be set up in Germany, a government that will ruthlessly and implacably eradicate the still very actiVe Fascism ; secondly, this democratic government definitely must be a government of the whole of Germany, so that it will have every pos- sibility de jure and de facto of destroying the remnants of Nazidom throughout the whole of the country until not a single hothouse well protected from northern winds remains on German soil to cultivate the poisonous, creeping plants of Fascism. Any other decision on this question means that the warmongers (German and non-German) will succeed in building up somewhere in Germany that base which they need for future wars.
That is why the words " all-German democratic government " are not an empty phrase so far as we are concerned ; each of those words has an importance of its own. We representatives of Soviet intelligentsia are somewhat surprised at the fact that many people in Britain do not realise that the British, no less than the Russians, have need of vigilant and strong protection against a resurgence of German Fascism. Why is it that many people in Britain cannot see that the fatal mistake of the recent past must not be repeated, and still hope blindly that Britain is not threatened by war simply because she does not want to fight anybody? One recalls that in the spring of 1939 there were many people in Britain who thought that a very clever way of preserving peace in the West had been found; all one had to do was to give Hitler the chance to use a direct path to Leningrad through Lithuania, Latvia and Esthonia—countries that " did not want " to be protected. No doubt Lord Halifax thought his policy as shrewd and fine as that of Talleyrand, and when he announced in the House of Lords on June 8th, 1939: " The main point of the difficulty is the position of the Baltic States; we have never attempted, and we should not think it right to attempt, to thrust 'assurances on countries which did not want them." If Lord Halifax had known that this shrewd policy would soon lead to the destruction of London boroughs by flying bombs he would perhaps not have been so pleased at the behaviour of the pro-Hitler Baltic Governments, which " did not want " to be protected. War in Europe, so profitable to America, has definitely not turned out so profitable to Britain in the past, and would undoubtedly be still less profitable in the future. And since an all-German democratic government is the most reliable instrument for uprooting German Fascism and a movement for revanche, should the present generation in Britain repeat the blunders and miscalculations of Neville Chamberlain and Lord Halifax and hope that war will be confined to the East? The peoples of the Soviet Union and Britain are equally interested in safeguarding Europe from the intrigues of irresponsible transatlantic war- mongers and their too hasty and too zealous agents in " Bizonia." There is nothing to be surprised at in the fact that these gentlemen fight with such verve against the very idea of establishing a central democratic government in Germany. There is much more reason to wonder why so many honest people in Britain have not yet discovered the real reason behind this struggle against the Soviet proposal.—Yours faithfully, EVGENY TABLE, Member of the Academy of Sciences of U.S.S.R. Ulitsa Serafimovicha 2, Kvartira 188, Moscow 72.
December 10th, 1947.
[The sentence in Mr. Wilson Harris's broadcast on which this letter appears to be based read as follows: " For the last three days discussion has been circling round the question whether the Peace Conference shall be held before a German Government is formed or whether, as M. Molotov desires, a German Government is formed before the Peace Conference. There are arguments both ways, but there is not much consistency in Russia's advocating the political unity of Germany while she refuses to effect the economic unity of Germany."—EDITOR, The Spectator.]
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