After the Youth Rally
The culmination and closing days of the Communist Youth Rally in Berlin did nothing to dispel the impression of the apparently inseparable association of good and bad elements in the gathering, or the conviction of the necessity of fostering the one and eliminating the other, at any rate in the countries outside direct Soviet influence. As to the Berlin gathering and events that preceded it, there are enquiries that still need to be made. The verbose and argumentative Foreign Office statement on the alleged mishandling of British youths and girls at Saalfelden by no means disposes of an unfortunate episode ; the American Commandant in Austria might well feel it his duty to investigate the affair fully ; there is such a principle as freedom of travel, even for Communists. All that, however, is merely temporary and secondary. The problem that the Berlin Rally poses is not how its methods might be copied or adopted—that is no desirable Objective—but how the unquestioned enthusiasm it aroused for ideals in themselves good, however they may be perverted by propagandists, can Throughout Europe be given sound and con- structive expression without sacrifice of its force and inspiration.
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