"It Will Clear the Air"

"Churchill," said the London Daily Worker last week, "has returned to his anti-Communist vomit." What Churchill had returned to was his Munich-era assertion that appeasement will not buy peace. The question had a new urgency in March of 1946, as spring girdled the earth with the possibility of military action and the probability of fresh diplomatic crises.

Armies, navies and air forces maneuvered from Dairen to Labrador; Russia countered a U.S. charge of undue meddling in Manchuria with a charge that the U.S. had done the same in Bulgaria. Moscow again claimed that Russian forces had stayed in Manchuria at Chinese request, and alleged that "fascist" armies were being maintained in the U.S. and British zones of Germany. The Greek elections wavered toward postponement because of a leftist boycott; chancelleries puzzled what to do next with Rightist Dictators Franco and Peron. The Danes politely asked Russia to loosen her grip on Bornholm island; the Iranians despairingly saw her extend her grip on Azerbaijan; the Turks were once again the object of a Moscow war of nerves.

Bevin with Knobs. Amidst all these alarms came Churchill's blunt speech (see NATIONAL AFFAIRS), to carry still further the sequence of plain talking among the Big Three which began in January with the Bevin-Vishinsky clashes at UNO. Said a bitter left-wing Labor M.P.: "It was Bevin with knobs on it."

Throughout the Empire, the speech did emphasize that Britain is no longer able to defend her own interests with her own military strength. The pressures are too many; the resources too few. With or without an alliance, Great Britain and the Dominions were tied to the U.S. security system. But the Empire was another matter; and it was the Empire, rather than England or the Dominions, that bore most of the pressure.

Force with Force. Much of the world was unready for Churchill's bold formula. Tired Frenchmen saw another period of power politics. The speech caused a sensation among Germans, who have kept a sneaking hope of quarrels among the Allies. Hermann Goering was sure that Churchill's words meant war, mourned unctuously: "That's the end of everything."

Moscow kept silent for two full days, then briefly attacked the speech for its "extremely aggressive tone." Three days later the Moscow radio picked up Churchill's charge that Russia had lowered "an iron curtain" across Europe, and retorted that U.S. and British "conservatives" were using "dirty methods of slander." The most significant comment of all came from a high-ranking Russian prosecutor at Nuernberg. After dutiful indignation that Churchill should have abused U.S. hospitality by such a speech, he continued:

"Some will say that this will mean war. I don't believe it. It merely means that the Western powers are going to try to use the same strategy we have been using all along, and I think we shall appreciate that. Isn't there an old proverb saying, 'You must meet force with force?' Well, you're going to use force now. We are surprised it took you that long to get around to it. It will clear the air."

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