The Battle of the Baltic
Seen from the east, the Iron Curtain must seem a somewhat imperfect barrier, with one end resting rather untidily on the northern frontiers of Greece and the other floating in the Baltic. That being so, nothing could be more consistent with the brutal logic of Russian policy than the constant attempts now being made to drive all Baltic fishing vessels into a smalle • and smaller area, far from the Russian-controlled coasts, and to forbid warships and military aircraft (except those of Baltic countries) to pass the Straits between Denmark and Sweden. All these activities are going on without any regard for the common law, for ordinary decency, or even for human life. Only two months ago an American naval aircraft was shot down into the Baltic, with the Joss of ten lives. For many months fishermen and their vessels have been forced into Russian-controlled ports and held there, often for weeks, the usual excuse being that the ships in question were in Russian territorial waters, which are asserted to extend 12 miles from the coast, instead of the three observed by the rest of the world. In fact, in a recent notorious case, which has shocked the Swedish authorities out of their usual caution in pronouncements about Russia, two ships were seized more than 16 miles from the Russian coast, and a later attempt was made to intercept them when they were more than 40 miles out. There is no easy answer to this lawlessness. Constant naval escort for fishing vessels is impracticable, and in any case the fishermen have had enough of such treatment and will not go near Russian waters—which is, of course, precisely %% hat the Russians want. But the recent suggestion In the Russian periodical State and Right that the Baltic should be closed to the warships of all non-Baltic Powers is another matter. Such suggestions in the Russian Press are never accidental. If, in their usual manner of " trying it on," the Russians attempt to enforce this further interference with the freedom of the seas, the time will have come to draw the line—as it was drawn when the air lift and the counter-blockade stopped the attempt to force the Western Powers out of Berlin.
