Stalin Dies As Anglo-

American Union Takes Shape

rHE kind of silliness which governs the popular outlook on international affairs was llustrated in Sydney when the tussian dictator died on March 7. ’he Daily Telegraph, with more npulsiveness than sense, prepared news-poster: “Stalin Dead— fooray”. When the printing-house taff saw this, they refused to pro uce the poster. The editors— uite rightly—said they would not e dictated to by the typographers: nd there was a strike. The poster id not appear: “Joe’s” passing was nnounced in more sober fashion.

Like millions of others, the Daily 'elegraph folk had got Stalin com letely out of focus. He was neither n omnipotent monstrosity nor a sader to be revered. He was simply n extremely unpleasant incident i the tortured world produced bv vo World Wars.

The colossal waste of the two Tars threw the world’s economic astern out of joint. Humanity ceded three or four decades of Bace and security and industry to ;store the losses. The Communists ere clever enough to seize this icasion to block peace, and keep le world poor and bad-tempered, talm was merely the head of the [uscovite conspiracy against civili ition. On his merits, he has no [ace in history— except that, as a ass murderer, he out-Hitlered itler.

The Muscovite Reds, through

high-pressure propaganda, tried to place him amongst the Red im mortals, like Marx and Lenin. But Stalin did not have that kind of brain. H. G. Wells dismissed him contemptuously as a “plodder”. He had the cunning of the fox—which he somehow resembled—and the tenacity of a bulldog. When Lenin was fading out, Stalin made up his mind to be dictator; and no con sideration of justice, mercy or decency was allowed to stand in his way. He attained unchallenged power.

He was the outstanding apostle of Totalitarianism. The State (in his case, the Communist Party) must be supreme in every depart ment of human life. Every vestige of individualism must be beaten into the ground. Every man and woman cherishing such things as moral law, personal obligation, human freedom, must be destroyed.

All this, for the aggrandisement and enthronement of the Red hierarchy.

With patience and ruthlessness almost beyond belief, this evil man and his gang planned to use the power of their enslaved Russia and her satellites for the overthrow of Western civilisation. While the war-weary Allies, in 1945-6, dis armed and dissipated their enormous strength, the Reds re tained their military organisation complete, and staged the Cold War Beyond any doubt, they would have

hurled themselves upon the Western nations In 1948-49, had they not feared the atom bomb which America developed.

So they stepped up the Cold War —the “communisation” of Asia; the organisation of minor wars (Korea, Indo-China, Malaya) where we might dissipate our strength; the deep penetration of our politico economic structure by Red fifth columnists; the promotion of international and industrial unrest by every conceivable means. They have had great success. As the director of the Cold War, Mr. Stalin deserved all the leather medals which his worshippers could pin upon his paunchy little person.

But Stalin had reached the peak of his success. He could no longer avoid either Hot War, or loss of face. Since 1948, the Western world has slowly and reluctantly abandoned the welter of dis armament, UNO, brotherhood-of man, Socialist administration, and similarly unpractical idealisms, and has come back to realities.

In 1945, the United States and the British Commonwealth con trolled the world (including the Muscovite set-up) and, for the sake of humanity, the union should have policed the world for a decade or two. But we abandoned our position to Russia. Now, after seven years of disillusionment, we are return ing to the situation of 1945. The Western nations have re-armed; a new and realistic and strong Government has taken charge of United States; Churchill and Eisenhower have been in close con ference; and even as this is written Eden and Butler, Britain’s two chief men next to the Prime

Minister are in Washington, shapimr the ’ Anglo-American union of the future The death of Stalin came most’ opportunely, for Stalin.

But the crisis is not past. On the contrary it may be only now develoning There was no successor for Stalin The half-dozen who have assumed command, under the nominal leadership of the undistinguished Malenkov, will almost certainly begin fighting among themselves for power.

There is grave restlessness throughout all the Curtain countries.

By a strange chance, the Red head of Czechslovakia died within a week of Stalin, and the Red head of Eastern Germany is dying. There is unrest in most of the countries of Southern Asia and Middle East.

Tito, head of Yugoslavia (Communist but anti-Moscow), is being royally entertained in London.

Russian fighters, along the Iron Curtain frontiers, have shot down three Anglo-American planes, without provocation. General Sir William Slim, about to step on a ship, to assume the Governor- Generalship of Australia, has been called suddenly to the Middle East, where he is an expert on political and military affairs.

These seemingly disconnected incidents are all part of a pattern.

The international tension is so great

that it must soon lead to something, Can the new set-up in Moscow— even if it wished it—put into reverse the enormous anti-Western organisation which Stalin created and geared? We should soon know. ]i/rE AN WHILE, Moscow’s inter- Ifl national brew bubbles furiously and noisily in Asia—too close to our northwest horizon for comfort. Even if the Western nations, led by an Anglo-American Union, can display enough teeth to keep the Red wolves away, there will be danger almost immeasurable in Asia for all the countries of the South Pacific. There are more than one thousand millions of people— the majority of them hungry—in Asia. There is room and sustenance for a large proportion of them in the South Pacific. There is no possibility of peace while that setup remains.

Between Southern Asia and empty Australia there is a series of archipelagoes, Indonesia. Until World War 11, our friends the Dutch were in control of Indonesia, During the war, the Japanese took over, and allowed Indonesian nationalism to develop. After the war, Socialist fanatics (Australia’s Dr. Evatt and the Australian Communist wharf-workers union in the lead) prevented the Dutch from re-

turning to Indonesia, and set up the Indonesian Republic, In accordance with the forecast we made repeatedly in 1946-50, the Indonesian Republic now is in a condition of increasing collapse— moral, political and economic—and, if it is left alone, it almost certainly will be taken over soon by a Corn munist organisation. Thus—as the map too plainly shows—there will be provided a row of Red stepping stones from Red Asia into the heart of the South Pacific. The danger to the South Pacific cannot be exaggerated.

Stalin, as one of the phenomena of the first half of the twentieth century, gives point to the half century’s outstanding lesson: If a nation, or a combination of nations, wants peace and security, so as to give its people a real chance to live in comfort and enjoy cultural progress, it must go everlastingly armed. The tyrants of the world— to the ranks of whom, in this life time, we have added Kaiser Wilhelm, Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin— have shown us again and again that, until nature changes, we can place no trust in the “brotherhood of man”. Surely, let us gaze towards the stars; but, if we would be free men, let us keep the sword sharp and very close to a hand trained to use it.