Supply & Demands

The Kremlin went on with its carefully planned peace offensive, just as if nothing had happened. But of course, in East Germany, something had.

In Hungary, the Iron Curtain was raised to permit three western newsmen to attend a "world peace council," and to hear Comrade Journalist Ilya Ehrenburg talk about the "entirely new circumstances" which had caused the Soviet Union to "want to reach an agreement with those who profoundly dislike us." In Italy, Communist Leader. Palmiro Togliatti advocated bringing either the Communists or the left-wing Socialists into the government, talked of "synchronized action between the two great working-class parties." In France, Communist Leader Maurice Thorez, in his first speech to the faithful since his return from 2 1/2 years' medical treatment in Russia, reminded workers of "the happy experience of the Popular Front . . . Dear comrades, once again, as we did 20 years ago, we must fight wholeheartedly with all our energies to bring about this alliance . . ."

The cries for "united action" were not new. Socialist candidates in the recent municipal elections in France were repeatedly approached by Communists who offered to pool votes and abstain from hostile propaganda. Then, as now, the Socialists rejected all approaches. But there was a new note of determination in the rejection. Speaking in France's National Assembly, influential Socialist Charles Lussy declared: "To speak of unity of action today, after the events which we know, seems to me rather misplaced, particularly on the day after the unity of action of the German workers was shattered by the fire of Soviet cannons . . . The working people of France and all the workers of the world will know henceforth the fate they can expect and the liberties which are reserved to them in the regime you praise . . . if, unhappily, they allow themselves to be deceived by your demagogy and your lies . . . When individual gallows are not enough, the tanks are brought in . . ."

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