HARGES and counter-charges are flying over the
U.S. state department’s claim, eagerly echoed by the

the §

majority of the American and Canadian press, that
Oviet is “aggressive and expanding.”

_ But what are the facts to back up this contention? The
newspapers have been filled with plausible expositions, but
©w well do they stand up to examination?

One set of ‘facts’ was given to
the public by the diplomatic cor-

_ tespondent of the New York

_ Romania
_Rorthern Bukovina)—21,000.

Times, James Reston. He printed
® table intended to back up the
State department. The following
es offered as proof of Russian
“xpansionism ; it represents lands
i which the Soviet Union was
Supposed to have expanded since
the war:

Finland—i3,788 square miles”
acquired by the USSR.

Poland—69,000.

Estornia—18,353.

Latvia—25,402,

Lithuania—22,959.

Uzechosiovakia (sub - Uarpa-
thian Ukraine) —4,921..
(Bessarabia and

' Tannu Tuva — 64,000 square
Thiles,
Kuriles—3,944 square miles. —
Sakhalin—13,390 square miles.

__A very similar list of Russian
Sains’ was compiled for the
American Mercury in May 1946,
by the Wall Street Journal col-
“mnist who doubles in brass for
the social democratic New Lead-
*r, William Henry Chamberlain.

Added up, all that territory,
ROw part of the USSR, totals ap-

-Ptoximately 250,000 square miles.

It appears to be a pretty im-
Pressive argument for ‘exp2n-
Slonism’—except for the facts

these two columnists have sup-

Pressed. What they didn’t tell
their readers was that all this

Yepresents’ a net loss of 80,000

Square miles compared with Rus-
Sla of 1914. iv

Here is the table which. must |
be included to give. the true pic-.

ture. These are territorial losses

_ f the Soviet Union:
Westerr Byelorussia and Uk- .

Taine, minus East Galicia
Which was part of Russia—

50,000 square miles.

Russian Poland—50,000.

Lithuania—24,000. _ {

- Latvia—20,000.
Estonia—18,000.
Bessarabia—18,000."
Finland—132,000,
Petsamo (ceded to Finland in
1920)—4,000,

Gothland, awarded to Swe-

- den—1,000,

Kars and Ardahan (ceded to
_Turkey)—12,000,

Those figures are from the

Encyclopedia Brittanica. They to-

_ tal 380,000 square miles. So even
Using Reston’s figures as ‘expan-

FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 1947.
mere ee ‘

ionism’ they show a net ‘loss of
80,000 square miles of Soviet ter-
ritory.

e

UT even more dishonest in
the listing of the Times, Am-
erican Mercury and New Leader
is that they include Soviet ter-
ritory, previously robbed by con-
quest, but then rejoined to the
USSR.

Take, for example, the western
Ukraine and Byelorussia. This
territory was and is inhabited
by Ukrainians and Byelorus-
sians, not Poles, It was always
part of Russia. Even the Allies,
after the first world war drew
up the famous Curzon line and
included these territories in Rus-

‘sia. Finally, the Big Three at

Yalta recognized the absolute
justice of this claim. Re

By what stretch of the mean-
ing of words can that be called
‘expansionism’?

Or take Bessarabia. That is in-
habited by Moldavians. It was
part of Russia. It was torn from
her after the first world war by
conquest and now is back with
the Soviet Moldavian republic.

ET’S compare these territorial
questions to something every
American and Canadian under-
stands—the growth of the Am-

‘erican nation from thirteen sea-

board colonies to .a nation
stretching from the Atlantic to
the Pacific. Oren Le ae ‘

Will anyone deny that Texas
ig part of the U.S. or California,
or New Mexico, or Oregon?

True, such a fine patriot as

‘Abraham Lincoln condemned the
‘ageressive’ methods that were
“used by the government, under.

President James Polk, to get
territory from Mexico. (

Then let us imagine that Am-
erica was faced by a situation
such as Russia was after the
first world war. Say_ that as a
result of that war, Texas, Cali-
fornia and other states had been

‘stripped ‘from the Union. Then,

as time passed and as a result
of an anti-fascist war those Am-
erican states were reunited with
the United States. Would that
be an example of American ex-
pansionism? ~ ‘

So let’s be frank about who's
expanding and where. Before we
take up the real expansionist
danger, represented in dollar di-
plomacy, just & amine the news
about open and unashamed ex-
pansion. :

' sive

ve
of
thes,
| Stan
wi ‘d
- r © Deo Soy, like ,, in Fins ruby,
Beat 1 oPle to nt Dolio th? gretstory ao in
Powe,” New, .licy, 7 Steaz 7% ang ,,. 2earh
ts ? a D rm
inp) SClalig, “Signe Mepe, *°Cons¢) four
late ti, Sl
! = Worlg° Whicp a the ee
p ace Pera tis i :

x

N THE VERY day that the
U.S. state department sent
a, note to the Soviet Union ac-

_ cusing it of ‘expansionism,’ the
United Nations Security Council

was told that the U.S. was tak-
ing over the Japanese mandated
islands of the Pacific.

The U.S. bluntly stated that it

was taking these strategic islands
regardless of what the UN
thought about it. It announced
that it would establish military
bases there (six and seven thou-
sang miles from the U.S. and a
thousand miles from the USSR)
not subject to any kind of con-

‘trol or inspection.

Or take the expansion of the .
British empire. Senator McKel-
lar has not been demanding that
the U.S. condemn Britain for ex-
pansionism. Dean Acheson has
not been calling Britain aggres-
and expansionist. And
neither James Byrnes nor his
successor as secretary of state,
George C. Marshall,’ has been

‘sending notes to Britain protest-

ing that expansionism is a mild
word for British policies in
Greece, Egypt, Iraq or Pales-
tine. ;

But the British empire simply
took over possession of the for-
mer Italian colonies—and is now
administering them as British
colonies! ice a

ORE important than any kind

of territorial grab is the quiet
kind of expansionism by the big
monopolists and bankers of Wall
‘street. We know how their ex-
pansion into Germany — their
cartel arrangements before the
war—created a direct threat tu
America’s security. When Stand-
arg Oil and I. G. Farben made
a, patent deal on artificial rubber

Soha Naha sf Ss

Americans wére deprived of rub-
ber at the outhreak of hostilities.

At this very moment, Stand-
ard Oil representatives are back
in Germany trying to pick up
where they left off before the’
war. The same thing is true of
GE and General Motors and all
the big names of Wall street.

The recent incident at Dairen,
Manchuria arose from the ef-
forts of a Standard Oil man to
use the U.S. navy service for
his
churia. a

And in the Anglo-American oil
deal a short time ago U.S. and

British trusts wrapped up 80.

percent of all the oil resources’

ot the entire world. in a single.

cartel arrangement.

There is also ‘the:.example of
the Goodyear Tire and Rubber
Company. This -corporation in-
creased ‘its. profits’ from $15,000,-
000 in 1945 ‘to $36,000,000 last
year. Part ofthat came- from

private business in Man--

JOSEPH —
CLARK

decreased take-home pay for its
workers. But a good $10,000,000
came from its overseas invest-
ment and private empire.

e
XPANSION cannot be mea-
sured just by the . United

States’ far flung bases in Green-
land and Iceland, Panama and

the Carribean, the western Pa- ©

cific, Alaska and the Aleutians,
Canada and its Arctic. territories.

It must include the dollar ex-
pansionism which has one goal—

world domination and profit for

a few—at the expense of the
security and wellbeing of the
American and other peoples. “
Facts are. stubborn . things.
They can be distorted to conceal
and’ reversé their significance,
as the facts of Nazism were dis-

‘torted by the appeasers before

1939; but eventually* they force
the truth, For the future of Big
Three unity and the .peace and.

security of the world the truth —

must be made known now.

aes

inflationist ..price increases and

give: way to a new understand-
ing of community, national’ and
international problems. T h e€

policy. of depriving babies of»

their of.
their
cther workers of adequate hous-
ing will not go unchallenged.
Canadian women will not’ stand
idly by while the peace-breakers
make military alliances and
threaten the ‘homes and living
standards of their families by in-

milk, elderly people

creasing prices and lowering
wages.
Fired by the enthusiasm of

our sisters in other lands where

real democracy is being built un-_

‘der sterner conditions, the wo-
men of Canada will heed the

ieee aes YY yee

Women

comforts, veterans and.

eS

call, of Internationa] Women’s
Day, rallying to the organiza-—
tions Whose ‘strength of num-
bers spell benefits; the trade
unions, the auxiliaries, the con-
sumer and community groups,
the cultural societies, ‘where —
bonds of fellowship give new un-
derstanding. : ;
~ It is not enough to say it must
not happen. again.

Women of Canada must ans-
wer the call of International Wo-
men’s Day and join
strength to that of all who fight
for equal opportunities for wo-
men, against rising prices, for
higher living standards, for
peace so our children can live—
and live to the full. . :

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 11

Siete