The Uncouth Pattern

Last week the chief of TIME'S London bureau, Walter Graebner, completed a tour of western and southern Europe. On his rapid passage from Britain to France to Germany and on down to the Mediterranean, he did not attempt to view each country in definitive detail. Instead, lie tried to do what, in their different ways, the heads of the Big Three must do at their Potsdam Conference: to see Europe and its beaten heart, Germany, as one political whole. In that whole, he found his most significant news in the south.

Graebner's report:

The most important single fact to be reported here is that nearly all top American and British diplomats and political advisers in the Mediterranean area are strongly against the withdrawal of our troops from Europe. The Americans are saying so to officials at home. Whether British diplomats are sending similar reports, I do not know. But Field Marshal Alexander has taken up the matter with Churchill. The American ambassador in one country feels so strongly on the subject that he has banned the use of the word "redeployment" within his embassy.

This opposition to redeployment is based partly on the fear of Russia. But very few of the topmost sources think that war with Russia is a likely possibility in the foreseeable future. The main opposition to redeployment is based on the fear of revolutions by either rightist or leftist groups, especially when these groups are in the minority.

The trouble spots are everywhere--in Greece, Italy, France, Belgium, Germany. The opposition is also based on fear of new aggressions--for example, Yugoslav aggression against Italy and Greece, Bulgaria against Greece, Greece against Yugoslavia, etc. Troops, the diplomats believe, must be retained to hold the balance, to check the excesses on all sides, and to keep western Europe and part of the Mediterranean in the Anglo-American sphere,

American troops will soon be gone from every place except the German zone. This means that the job of maintaining stability in western Europe and the Mediterranean will fall primarily to the British. But the British--considering their dreadful economic position--probably cannot spare the manpower. Eight weeks ago Churchill was already worrying over this question.

In the Moscow Manner. The form and operations of Tito's Government in Yugoslavia have had a profound influence on those who oppose redeployment. I was not in Yugoslavia long enough to give a final opinion. But the general opinion of Britons and Americans in the Mediterranean area is that Tito does not enjoy the support of the majority in Yugoslavia and that his Government is engaged in excesses which cannot be condoned on the ground that such things are to be expected in a period of "transition."

In Belgrade, there is much that reminds one of Moscow and the Moscow manner of doing things. An outstanding difference is that in Belgrade you meet people on the streets who harshly attack Tito (one told me he was another Hitler), while in Moscow you never encounter anyone who criticizes Stalin.

OZNA (the Yugoslav equivalent of the Russian NKVD) is busy rounding up collaborators and interrogating suspects. The press is tightly controlled and the courts --on the admission of the Yugoslavs themselves--are sadly in need of reform and reorganization. The affairs of state are rigidly administered by Tito and a few close cronies. Foreign Minister Subasich and others who were added to the Partisan cabinet last March have little real power.

Belgrade abounds with stories of Partisan and Russian excesses and of the fear under which the people are living. Many are no doubt true, many are probably false. In any event it should be realized that most of the people who talk to Britons and Americans in Belgrade are people with grievances (those who are content don't run to foreign representatives) and often they are people whose record during the occupation was spotted.

Yugoslav officials admit mistakes. But they argue that British and U.S. observers do not take sufficient account of the fact that, while Yugoslavia was occupied, there were those who fought the Germans and those who collaborated. Until the collaborators are dealt with, these officials say, it is impossible to institute a democracy as the West knows it.

British officials in Belgrade are more tolerant of the Tito regime than are the Americans. They think that on paper Tito's plans are not too bad; that the great misfortune is that the men under him have neither the brains, training nor understanding to carry the plans out. The British prefer to reserve final judgment.

All foreign observers in Belgrade agree that Russia is not guiding Yugoslav internal or external policy. On the other hand, this does not mean that Russia does not approve of what Tito is doing. Tito knows the ways of the Russians and does not need guidance.

This week, at the request of Yugoslavia, the U.S. Military Mission packed up and left. Next to leave is the Typhus Commission, because the Yugoslavs feel that the danger of epidemic is now over. Moving into high gear is UNRRA with a staff of 150, headed by a Russian. Most of the other members of the commission are Americans. The Yugoslavs would like 300,000 tons of materials monthly. What they are getting now will shortly be increased to 175,000 tons a month.

In the Rightist Manner. In Greece the British refer to the EAM-ELAS revolt as "The Trouble," the Americans call it "The Revolution," while the Greeks describe it as "The Mutiny."

One definite impression received from Britons and Americans in Greece as well as in Italy was that correspondents did a pretty bad job of reporting the revolt. Cooped up in the Grande-Bretagne Hotel, and pressed for immediate copy, they formed themselves into an almost solid bloc which was pro-EAM and anti-British.

All now appears quiet in Athens and Salonika. But all sources agree that danger lies ahead unless the excesses of the right are checked and checked quickly. In effect, these excesses differ little from those reported in Yugoslavia. Arrests, imprisonments and murders have been carried out on a large scale. The British are just as agitated by this swing to the right as they were by the left swing, and are laboring to check it.

The strong man in Greece today is Kyriakos Varvaressos. Tall, well-built and well-dressed, he is a banker (governor of the National Bank of Greece), and looks like one. Anthony Eden and Harold Macmillan recommended him to the Greek Government as the man who could most likely stabilize the country's economy. Already he can point to several notable achievements. The cost of living has declined 30% despite the fact that Varvaressos has devaluated the drachma and raised wages.

One factor working against inflation is widespread confidence that UNRRA will put the country back on its feet. UNRRA has 270 men & women in Greece working under Buell Mahan, a fortyish, rawboned Minnesotan who was a regional food administrator in the U.S.

The Prime Minister is short, shifty-eyed Admiral Petros Voulgaris. He harps on two points: 1) the need for "security"; 2) the right of Greece to northern Epirus. now a part of Albania. When I asked what he thought of Americans and Britons in Greece, he said: "I wish they would stay here forever." There is only a handful of U.S. soldiers; the British have several divisions.

The British are definitely predominant in downtown Athens. They look well, and behave even better. Athens is clean, bright, and almost gay, compared with Italian cities and Belgrade. Sidewalk cafes are crowded with Englishmen and Greeks willing and able to pay 35-c- for a tiny blob of ice cream and 20-c- for a thimbleful of coffee.

In the Italian Manner. Italy is in dire need of coal, raw materials, and food. The Allies are doing all they can to help Italy, but that may not be enough. A top Cabinet member said that the situation may be so serious in a few months that the Communists might decide the time was ripe for revolt. The Communist Party is growing, and many of the new members are ex-Fascists.

I could find no evidence to support reports that the British are busy trying to bolster the House of Savoy. My conclusion, after long discussions with the best sources, is that the British policy is to let the people decide. One check for this view is Foreign Minister de Gasperi, who pointed out that if Britain were set on a monarchy, an attempt would have been made by the British to rebuild the Italian Army. This they have not done.

In the Western Manner? In a large part, perhaps all, of the continent of Europe, the U.S. and Great Britain hold out the only hope of democracy for a good many years.

Hitler's and Mussolini's Fascism is destroyed, but in its ruins there is rapidly rising a dictatorship of the left. This is being advertised in advance as a democratic revolution by the people and the popular forces with the promise of freedom and a better life. It is not that. But factual descriptions of the current repressions and restrictions in such places as Yugoslavia may be literally accurate and yet be without any real perception of the why & wherefore. There is a case for the Partisans of this world, in Yugoslavia and elsewhere, even though they are grim, smelly folk who eat with their knives. All the revolutionaries I know of in history and in Europe today fit this uncouth pattern--except the Fascists. And certainly Europe is having a revolution.

Can Britain and America take a chance? Or shall the two countries hold the line now--on the Elbe and Danube--and do their damnedest to keep what is left of Europe as free as America and England? We don't have to fight the Russians to save something of Europe. But if we are interested in keeping some of Europe democratic, we ought to declare that to be our policy and make it plain to the Europeans themselves, and to the Russians.

We will not be able to keep Europe democratic or free if we and the British pull out. Europe this summer, and for a long time to come, will be too wartorn, too weak, too submissive, too morally bankrupt and too chaotic to stand on its own feet. Democracy must be encouraged and preserved--if necessary against a background of power. Or are we ready to despair and to give Europe over to the Titos?

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