WHY SOVIETS EXPELLED WRITER

Anna Louise Strong's action
perilled Sino-Soviet balance

WE HAVE received “a number
of letters asking us to comment
on the case of Anna Louise
Strong. Miss Strong has now
provided her own commentary
in ‘her series of articles in the
New York Herald Tribune syn-
dicated throughout the U.S. and
other countries,

When Miss Strong arrived in
the U.S. after having been ar-
rested and held for five days and
then deported from Moscow on

’ charges of espionage and sub-
versive activities, she at first
urged the press not to use her
case to inflame international
tension. It is hard to reconcile
this with her subsequent decision
to assist the press to do just

that, choosing as her Medium a
reactionary Republican organ.

The Herald Tribune introduced
the series with an editorial note
characterising it as “one of the
most damning documentations of
the processes of the Police state
which. has become available in
this country,” and adding that
perhaps Miss Strong herself did
not have “full realization of its
implications.”

The latter commpnt was in-
spired, no doubt, by Miss Strong’s
insistence that she remained a
supporter of the Soviet Union
and that her only concern was
to further the cause of peace.
But Miss Strong is an intelli-
gent, experienced person who
_ has been around quite a lot. She
knew that the U.S. was at that
very moment engaged in prepar-
ing a pact of war against the
Soviet Union, a pact to which
_ Yet she was willing to be used
as an instrument to help inflame
just the sort of anti - Soviet hy-
steria needed to put over the
pact. She was willing to let her
articles appear the very week-
€nd the peace forces of the US.
gathered in the Cultural and

¢ Conference for World

Peace, were being subjected to
the most fascist-like assaults on
their liberties, :

Her own attendance at these
meetings could not wipe out, the
fact that her series was assisting
the campaign of the very fascist
forces who were picketing the
meeting. :

Nor could the fact that she
Sought to turn over $1,000 of
the large sum she received from
the New York. Herald Tribune.
for the defense fund of the 12-
Communists on trial in New
_ York: She wrote over her sig-
_ Rature on the cheque the words,
“For the American Communists
who are getting as raw a deal
from American justice as°I got
from the USSR. From a+ fellow
victim of the cold war,” well
knowing there could be no count-
er endorsement to such a state-
ment. ° é

(Miss Strong’s check was re-
turned to her by the CP defense,
Ed.) ;

ete ie *

MANY OF those who at first,
felt dismay and disbelief over
the charges made against Miss
Strong now feel that the fact
that at this critical) moment ‘she
could “be capable of writing
these articles so damaging to

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the cause of peace, while pub-
licly protesting her love of peace,
indicates that there must. have
been serious basis for the
‘charges.

The conclude that on previous
occasions, while publicly protest-
ing her friendship for the Soviet
Union, she was capable at the
same time of engaging in activi-
ties injurious to the interests of
that country.

Miss Strong's series contains
much more about her own sensa-
tionalized fears than they do of
factual material. It is hen fears,
rather than the actual facts,
which furnish grist for the anti-
Soviet mill. of such lower-than-
Hearst journals as the New
Leader.

The fears included mental pic-
tures of brutal treatment, tor
ture, hard labor in a concentra-
tion camp, nightmares about be-
ing dumped somewhere in the
snow and being attacked by
wolves. This she attributed to the
“hate and wish-to-destroy” she
said she saw in the face of the
prison official who questioned
her. A psychiatrist might have
a different interpretation.

The facts recorded by Miss
Strong did not bear out any of
these fears. Her quarters were
clean and reasonably comfort-
able. She was well fed, courteous-
ly treated. At one point. she
quips: “Maybe they just wanted
me to write up their model jail.”
Naturally, being in jail is not a
pleasant experience, but Miss
Strong’s own report indicates far
better treatment than accorded
by most governments to persons
similarly charged.

bee age * *

WHILE Miss Strong protests
that she has “not consciously
done anything against the in-
terests of the Soviet state,” and
attributes her experience to the
“mistake” of a minor official,
there is enough in her story,
vaguely as she records this part
of it, to provide at least one
wholly reasonable explanation.

Miss Strong was planning to

go to Communist China, by way

of Manchuria. The Soviet auth-
orities told her the border was
closed, and that they could nat
arrange for her entry from the
Soviet Union. ‘ ‘ :
She wrote in the New York
Herald Tribune (March 30):

route thinking I also

: be hush-hush, and I
wasn’t hush-hush at all: I was

a journalist.” :

The extreme delicacy of this
question, with the civil war in
China at a crucial stage, should
be understood by those who
have followed Soviet foreign pol-
icy. The Soviet Union has a for-
mal treaty with the Nationalist —
government of China. Despite

the wild charges of treaty-break-

ing hurled against the USSR by
its enemies, serious students of:
Soviet affairs know the extreme
Scrupulousness with which the
Soviet Union guards its treaty
relations with other ‘powers.

In this case, there was at stake
not only the treaty with the
Nationalist government, but also
inter - related agreements with
other powers, especially within
the framework of the United Na-
tions. 5

_ dom, and every action

With the United States en-
gaged in girding half of the world
for war against the Soviet Un-
ion, and flouting the most basic
UN principles, it is understand-
able that the Soviet Union would
exercise the most extreme care
not to provide any pretexts for
the Western powers to take steps
further undermining the United
Nations. ‘

a * *

WHILE THE sympathetic at-
titude of the Soviet Union for
the Chinese Communists and
democrtatic forces generally is
well] understood, it has meticul-
ously maintained the position of
non-interventon in Chinese af-
fairs, believing that events In
China are the affair of the Chi-
nese people themselves,

It has consistently refrained
from giving military or other
support to the Chinese Commun-
ists, as former State Secretary
Marshall and other American

officials have testified, and from ~

any action in this situation which
could increase international ten-
sicn and intensify the danger of
war. In view of this, the closing
of the border with Manchuria,
now under Communist ‘control, is
understandable.

Considering the very fact that
Miss Strong had such a long réc-
ord as a friendly interpreter of
the Soviet Union, and had always
insisted that her role was not
that of an ordinary journalist,
but of one actively working and
organizing for peaceful and
friendly elations, the Soviet
authorities had reason to expect
from her a degree of understand-
ing of their position and a sense
of responsibility about the situa-
tion quite different than that of
a correspondent out for a scoop.

When, as Miss Strong has her-
self acknowledged, she displayed
no such understanding, but in-
stead went to extreme lengths to
find evidence of some “secret”
route, and to compel the Soviet
authorities to make arrange-
ments for her which their policy
made illegal, it is not surprising
that they drew the most seriou
conclusions, : :

Nor is there any justification
for Miss Strong now to talk about
a “hush-hush route,” providing
ammunition for those who would
like to prove Soviet aid to the
Chinese Communists, the more so
since she herself previously wrote
from China that the border was
tightly closed, and has admitteg

privately that the blockade was

complete,
Gee
WHILE Miss Strong expressed
wonder that the Soviet Union
should maintain relations with
the Nationalist government, her

_ Own knowledge of Soviet foreign

Policy and the present state of
world affairs should have made
clear to her why the USSR would
honor its treaty relations as long
as that government retained its
legitimacy. : :
Possibly a tragic ‘quality in
Miss, Strong’s nature has led her
step by step along a course whose
full implications she did not re-
alize, But when the peace of the
world is at stake, actions must
be judged on the basis of objec-
tive realities rather than com-
plex personal motives, _ :
It is not true’ that, as Miss
Strong has said, “peace is more
important than freedom.” Peace

can be no free.
i -Must be
judged by its: contribution to both
these great goals. —T.S, in So-
VIET RUSSIA TODAY,

Protests ‘check’

President Lee Durbridge of
California Institute of Technol-
‘ogy testifies before the con-
gresional atomic committee at.
Washington. Protesting propos-
als for FBI “checks” on gov- -
ernment-financed atomic  stu-
dents, he charged that such a
plan would be “introducing po-
lice methods into American
youth.”

OTTAWA ‘SHOW

B.C. Native girl
artist honored

A 13-YEAR-OLD Native Indian
girl who has won considerable
acclaim for her work in the two
years she has been painting will
be honored with a one-man show
in the National Galleries at Ot-
tawa next month. She is Judith
Phyllis Morgan, who jis now work-
ing part-time in the provincial
miiseum at Victoria while shé
continues her art studies.

Her talent was discovered by
George Sinclair, the artist, when
he conducted an art class at Al-
berni Residential School for In-
dians, and the encouragement he
ave her persuaded her to de-
velop her work.

Profiting by criticism of its
long neglect of the late Emily
Carr of Klee Wyck fame, whose
work was given official recog-
nition only after her_death, the
provincial government now de-
cided to select and purchase five
of Miss Morgan’s paintings. The
purchase will be attended by a
special ceremony.

“Millan, Florence Murray, 4 ~

GOOD READING

Quarter will |
Shmooth sati

AL CAPP’S nearly i
satire The Life and Times
Shmoo was reviewed on
‘page when Simon and Se
issued its dollar edition.
Pocket Books brings us a
age of shmoos (“there are
solutely no bones”) for a qu

It’s worth recalling that
Li’l Abner brought that
shmoos to Dogpatch an
world the concept of those’
tile, fertile little problem-s
created a sensation in the
strip industry. For here w
true satire on the Am
economy of high prices
Scarcity, here was the
recognizable thrust of ridi
such monopolies as Mr. Fatb'
the pork czar. Anyone can
that name ‘Armour. j

And those shmoos, wondé!
pets and ready to die of sil
happiness at the thought
being eaten, become a cl@
vehicle for savage satire agai —
the profit-and-loss system ee.
Capp’s abrupt and artificial
ing of this legend is obvi
platitude and utterly fails to ain
inish the total impact.

As the author of this ‘att!
tive book says: “Shmoo-b
oblige.”

* * *

IN The North Atlantic pach
for Peace or War? AD of
Chapman gets to the roots ‘
the purposes of the pact
shows how it increases the three!
of war. | d

Who Pays for the Cold W#
by George Blake documents
charges that the Marshall Pl a
and the cold war foreign et
are having a disastrous effect °|
the security and well-being
the American people.

* *

* ee
ANYONE who has ever trie
to collect data for a study, pe
or speech on the Americah iit
gro will realize how difficult
is to obtain material, ane
Therefore, especially welcor
is the new edition of Nee
Handbook, released for the ;
time by a major publisher,

Mae
wri

er, teacher and scholar, nas #0
nnumerable hours collecting sae
tisties and data, which, ae
gether between covers :
ficiently indexed, makes th
valuable reference work. |

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