Politeness and Mrs. Petrov
Stalin's policy towards the West was inflexibly hOstile. Malenkov's is identical. Yet there is a difference. While the boorishness of Stalinism spread like a stain to the outer edges of every sort of relationship. Malenkovism seems to allow some small areas in the cultural field to be kept clean. No one imagines that encouragement to fraternise implies any change in the essentials of Russian policy. Still, it is pleasant for those who deal with Russians to find them permitted at last to be something like their own selves. A Communist may dutifully think of us as crocodiles and hyaenas, but we for our part have never thought of the Russians as other than human creatures like ourselves. So, whatever, the ideological divisions, the possibility of establishing even the most tenuous of personal relationships is to be welcomed. If there is ever to be an agreement to live and let live (and nothing better can be hoped for) there must be some sort of good will on both sides. It is good to hear of the men in the Kremlin enjoying a performance by the Comedie Francaise and drinking later with the members of the company. When the Russian dancers come to London they will be welcomed warmly. It is agreeable to be able at last to talk with a Russian official without being made to feel that either he or oneself has newly arrived from another planet. But the story of Mrs. Petrov does the cause of courtesy no good. It may be that the Australian Government handled the affair clumsily. But since it was only when Mrs. Petrov was being dragged, distraught and dishevelled, on to the aircraft that the suspicion arose that she was leaving Australia against her will, it is difficult to see how Mr. Menzies could have acted differently. What is certain is that the behaviour of the two uncouth couriers ' escorting ' her was revolting. Are the Russians incapable of realising the effect on the free world of such behaviour on the part of their officials abroad ? Are they unable to under- stand that it is by incidents such as this that they are most generally judged ? So long as some of their representatives are allowed to behave like hatchet men in a far-fetched thriller any attempt by the rest to establish courteous relations will be prejudiced.
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