Warning to Allies

Almost with one voice, the Senate last week angrily had its say about allies who trade with Communists. Missouri's Senator James P. Kern thought he had a way to discourage them: "Not one gun, not one barrel of gasoline, not one ton of rubber has been withheld from Marshall Plan countries which were shipping [war] materials ... to Russia and her satellite nations." He wanted a law forbidding EGA to send raw materials or financial aid to any Marshall Plan nation which continues trafficking with Communist countries.

Kem and Minority Leader Kenneth Wherry had been trying for almost a year to get some such law passed, but never before had they had so receptive an audience. MacArthur's testimony was still fresh in every Senator's mind. The Administration's objections had been that blanket restrictions would interfere with U.S. sources of strategic materials, hamper allied unity, produce such odd results as keeping West Germany from buying potatoes in East Germany. Now, the Senate had its dander up.

Nevada's Republican George W. Malone reported that shipments of tin, rubber, steel and other war supplies to Red China from Singapore and Hong Kong had even been stepped up since the start of the Korean war. In the past eleven months, said Democrat Herbert R. O'Conor, chairman of the subcommittee investigating Red trade, Great Britain and her two colonies had sent close to $357 million worth of strategic materials to the Reds.

Arizona's 73-year-old Carl Hayden, chairman of the powerful Rules Committee, spoke the Senate's mind: "We all fully support the idea . . . My criticism is that the [proposal] does not go far enough." Without objection, the Kem proposal was passed, about six hours after Britain itself had decided at last to do something about trade with Communist China (see FOREIGN NEWS).

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.