M
THE CHINA MAIL
MONDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1957.
Soviet Writers Warned
THE OF
PERILS FREEDOM
AR KHRUSHCHEV'S recent excursions into literature, to which "Pravda" devoted two of its six pages, are now the subject of "follow-up campaign" in the Soviet. press, which, in importance if not in the volume of newsprint devoted to it, overshadows the "follow-up" to the Soviet announcement an the inter-continental missile.
A leading article of a length untisual even for "Pervca three columns on the front page and another lending article of two columns, as well as a round- up of writers' and artists' reac
some way imagine themselves to be above it as the true inter preters of the people'n will,
recognises that "the fear of criticism is in herent in departing classes and the parties representing them" And he insists, of course, that the Communist party Is
Mr Khrushchev
by Victor Zorza
In other words, some writers Itons to the Khrushchev speeches, have in fact made that "mis have all been used to drive inke" and, in falling to support hume Mr Khrushchev's lesson some of the party's policies to the writers. This is, briety, have claimed to be acting in the that they must write what the interests of the people, Air party whhes them to wiite, for Khrushchev ringtes DUL for thelf failure to do so, and their mention two issues on which search for "creative freedom" the party has rat. received the might cause in Russle an up
support of some writers, and it heaval similar to that which oc- is characteristic of the mon that curred in Hungary,
he should have chosen two of his Own pet schemes — the colonisation of the virgh lands and the Porganization of industry-as examples. But he real issues yo, in fact, much duper than that for they affect the poorly's very claim to the monopoly, if not of political power, then al least of "cOF- rect political thinking.
If Mr Khrushchev renly feels that something like this might result from the Russian free- dom wrllers' activities, then his recent speeches, or rather the effects, may, inkl. bu ultimately more important than the Soviet announcement on the "The lesson of bailisic rocket.
A the events in Hungary," Khrushchev said, "when fre counter-revolution made use of
ing. riinds
of what plicat carelessness. lack of weakness uf priciate, and Character,.,.may lead to." The Pravila" leadin article tec. the tremendous importance
121 tr
tinally recently Among
Mr Khrushchev'aj recently publisland losjonent" Vela Hy which they Laia into the ime romed by the writers. these it Hate the Fr creacion," the patty oleh
etterature, fish
wal
Hemfure.
The party's claim
c
It is these last two terms. Liten diery satisfactory tronsla
on into English, that are at the
OVEI
the writers
even
Soviet Union of any aspect of capitalism, which he hates.
Although he may yet be inade to recant as he has done sa often in his career-or lo diny this interpretation of his attiele. what he has written is in fact a not plea that
the Soviet Witts ele allowed to make their vision of Communistr a reolity. 1 article is also a warning that unless they are allowed to do so in their own way the silente.
y becume
su complete that afraid of criticism, that it wau s
thart almost stops," Ehren- criticism-but, he species, it borg is not one of the writers must be of the right kind, who have taken part in the Whether or not Mr Khrushchev "conspiracy of silence," to which is aware that this specification even Mr Khrushchey obliquely suggests that the Soviet Com- refers. He is, on the contraty. munist party and the burety- one of the writers who have cratic class 11 reproxenis may kept stint too long, and wha be on the point of departing feel it their duly to speak out from their pusilious
of power, how, his argument will not be lost on the freedom writers, In- dred, most of them claim to be weling in the interests both of the people and of the party, inj that thele criticism, unwelcome though it might be, is designed to strengthen the party by making the real servant. of the people.
Ehrenburg's answer
2
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Frill
WORLD BANK
EX HARI
AGENDA Gold Drain
·High Marks
Low Frants Sound Pounds Dollar Gap and oil that
WEST GERMANY)
"Ah, the fortunes of war, Ludwig! Let's land the victors a fow million to help put them on their feet!"
London Exola Serato
"The Anniversary
A
The Reds join in the choir
CO-
GEORGE FLORIS
Mister Money of
America
from
FREDERICK ELLIS
ATLANTIC CITY.
Canada, WALL-STREET unges "Who W daily to its lowest- mankind levels for two years, and one man sits back and watches it serenely.
He is. 50-year-old William Freach who had been plagued McChesney Martin jun. He of their is chairman of the board of with guerilla warfares cwn during the past decade, to see that such things can happen governore of the Federal - also in the Communist part
of Reserve System, equal to the world.
the Governor of the Bank/
munist states have been glimps- Conscience Soothed of England.
Interest Waned
However,
of
ment
not
the when
fer-
He
is Mister Money of America and, like Britain's Exchequer Chancellor of the
of dissullofaction did Peter Thorneycroft, his worry
Is inflation.
spread from and Hungary to the
Poland rest of
Unpopular
LTHOUGH one year has elapsed since the outbreak It was just a year ago that the tram wires
of the Hungarian uprising which, at least for a short Mr Khrushchev brings the
time, rocked the whole Communist world, the background of Budapest were turned into trailing tank issue out into the open by du- Perhaps the best answer lo seme willers for its own surat nousin ihters for creative the offeld party line on litera of the revolt is still shrouded in mystery in spite of the traps and the heroism of Hungary's people
freedom" who want the party ture is given by ilya Ehrenburg spate of articles and books written about it.
opposed tanks with bottles, and guns with to leave alone such writers as in a remarkable article called! Dudints- v, the author of "Not "The Lessons of Stendhal" Anti-Communist agitation among intellectuals, empty hands. by Bread Alone," These people, which hus more bearing on the students and workers reaching the climax at a given he says, complain that they are relations between the party and moment, the systematic flooding of the Budapest streets "pressed" by the party's the writers than anything which
adership of literature. Some- has appeared in Soviet with enthusiastic crowds, all these developments
The times, he adds, they make 30 press so far. The article, in a inciding with the absence of Erno Gero, the new Com- Geneland
against it, and at magazine called "Foreign Litern-munist Party boss, from the state capital (he was on a A Hungarian in Hongkong who has visited ther times they camouflage ture," is ostensibly concerned their real attitude by talk about with Stendhal's literary method visit to Tito in Yugoslavia), all indicate that there was
an organising force behind the events. However, if we many Hungarians in England, the pet's superfluous tutelage and ideas, but in fact it
disguised essay on the are looking for the moving spirit responsible for it, the and the United States, asks. and the thinly jupleen Shackle of his fresent state of Soviet Hemiure only way we can proceed is by elimination and the result struck the spark? And why did
Some writers, Mr Kiirushchev and the political climate we get is mostly to the negative. Ry, have made use of the which It exists, Thus mjors of the personality culi to answering
miss its moment?" the official party
For ane thing, it is curtain that tify their present opposition argument that the Stalin cult the individual directly responst- ta fie party's tendership of rose merely because of the ble for the conflagration could
The variety of stogans voiced In other words, the hortcomings of literature.
and the demands formed during justify their rule, hate the Com- Stalin's per- not be Cardinal Joseph Minds~ saying nality, and that it could not zenty who had been a prisoner the uprising
can best be er munist ruting class and that that freedom writers
very ruling class is fraught with something like this: "We have ecur again under Khrushchev for the preceding eight years, pluined by such a mixed leader.
deep Internal divisions. Very Lien entight once and we went or under "collective leadership." out of the conlioversy.
We can well. Imagine how the anly, party-ness" may be caught again." Mr Khush Ehrenburg, without actually regarded by the political police ship behind the scenes.
the dreaded AVH. Nor could duty of the ches says that this argument ferving to 1, tamated us the
produces this it be ex-Premier Ferenc Naty,
leaders of all the other Com- writer to Telleet in everything could be used only by people quotation from Stendhal: the leading gure, of the Hun- he writes the interests of the who do not agres with the
over their in
ing at each other the garlan National Committer What counts is not
shoulders since the events in The United States, who was pub. party, and "people-ness" as the party's polley, and he adds thal
personally of the tyrant butely disowned by the rebels for soine tge, rather than the duty, to among them are
Budapest, asking themselves the the essence of tyranny. A reflect and press the interests writers who are party nimbent
The part
Communist question: "Should there come to that tyrant may be inteligent cr his past association with the und deinands of the people. Mr These people, he says, have
strapid,
avent-provocateurs may have an October 23 here, who vil but Communists. Food or
13 would change sides, the way the Khraichey insists that there is their own interpretation of the
played, particularly during whatever the case he is both not and cannot be any contradic meaning of party discipline In
all-powerful and powerless, Colonel Pal Maleter, the by initial stages, in order to make Imte Nagy and Geza Losonczy don briween the two, since the that they do not wish to mult
their hidden
the Communist world and no show did?" This creeping suspicion he is frightened by conspira- now legendary military leader
opponents their actions to its demands, and party and the people are one.
further immediate signs of dia- their true colour and, perhaps, to may have had a part to play in cies, he is flattered, he during the days of open anti-
MIS the the recent government reshuffle integration were apparent be- MISTER Money is the econcile "It would be the greatest mi- cover this up with talk about
precipitate the flare-up In deceived
The prisons till, the Russian defiance, had fought, ac-
hind the fron curtain, the Inter- dictator of Amerien. In the take," he tells the writers, to their "erative attitude to party
cowardly hypocrites whisper, cording to reports, against the Russian preoccupation In Eastern
Middle East by the pretence for in both Russia and China..
est This seems to be think that in our Soviet condi- leadership.
in Eastern Europe waned. depression of 1932 he voted for and the silence becomes so rebels even as late as October Europe, is still a steret and may
On the other hand, the menace
The Western Powers soothed Franklin D. Roosevelt's "New tions You could serve the the gravest crime of all, for it
complete that the heart almost
0 of anti-Communism under
their consciences by anti-Deal" policy. people without taking active implies that the freedom writers
stops.
Communist administration hast-
So Martin, brought up in the part in transtorming the party's do not rely demand freed
ened the reconcillation between Russian tirades and resolutions
at the United Nations, without great depression, is determined policy to reality."
from the party leaders but in
Ehrenburg presses his point then.
However, after one year, we
expecting or attaining any prac- never again to allow slump eco- home by making it clear that
gre now more interested in the Krushchev and Tito and it is a
tical results. Contacts with theditions to return to America. Stendhal's experience is instruc- The inter-wor Regeri of
consequnces than in the origins factor in making Gomulka toe
Communist world were on the line."
maan- Again like Britain's Chan- tive today, that it "dispels many Hungary,
of the events in Budapest Admiral Nicholas
while resumed, even broadened. collor, Mister Money was ferrful illusions of the present day Horthy, old and detached from October 23, 1936. In their con-
The fact that all Communist
The few anti-Asian $30gans that in Hungary herself, countries are organised in much
bursting, roaring boom which are at times passed off rs the events of the day, spent the sequences
voiced by some of the ant-la America in Iron curtain the
would get Incontrovertible truths," And, last few months of his life in bed
enabled the
out of Communist demonstrators during hand general,
and by over-spending among the Hungarian the same manner,
references to "Asiatic So, like the Chancellor, lis Hordes" in connection with the cismped on unpopular credit Mongolian troops employed by restricticas to damp down the the Kuslans to crush the upris-boom. Unpopuler because nearly. Ing were eagerly taken up by everybody In America lives on the Communist propagands for next month's pay packet.
And dissemination in the East, Tals American industry is so volatilo may have helped the Commun-that it does not take much of a ists to gain votes at the Indian slackening. In buying to hit that and Indonealan elections. It 15 tender barometer-Well Street. therefore, worth mentioning that This makes Martin just about the majority of the Hungarian
whole of America. Particularly freedom fighters has no anime the nost unpopular man in the 16 on Wall Street, for he is one of sity, whatsoever to Aslans such. Indeed, Hungarian
no-them. tionalists are proud of their Aslan ancestry and claim rela- tionship with the Chinese, the Japanese and certain tribes
All in all, one year ago the anti-Communist majority of mankind missed 1 superb chance, because I was not yet ready to take It.
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.
25, and only hia conversation with a captured freedom-fighter remain so for ever. Induced him 10 change sides
and others distort Soviet reality, and means to induence the dis continents and in the entire free another proft from the Hungar. Chou En-lal's visit to Budapest under-caming. on the charge that Dudinisev Estoril, Portugal, without ways refugeea scattered over several Communist leadership to derive
tvorid.
of and
cx-
Ehrenburg, again without re-fant developments.
ian lesson. A careful study Joseph ferring to the
present, quotes Dudus, the focal point of anti-
the Hungarian developments on- Stendhal as saying: "The novel] Communist elements outside the is a mirror on a broad road. It Coalition
Inside Hungary the Commun- ubled them to spot the potential- Government during ists tried to be more careful in ly recalcitrant elements in their refeels at times the blue sky, the uprising. had been ап
selecting their Agureheade after own countries. This may at other tirnes the mud, the enigmatic figure and perished on
In an attempt to plain the new repressive mea- the revolt. puddles and the bumps. And the Communist gallows before gain popularity with the messes sures, particularly against stud- you secure the man who holds his enigma could have been re-
of their ents, in China and possibly the the mirror of lacking taste. The solved. However, for what little they joined the choir
denouncing the recent dow of Yugoslav refugees opponents In mirror reflects mud, and you we know about him, he seems past errors of the "Rakost and into Austria, blame the mirror, You would to have been more the creature. Gero clique" and replaced their do better to blame the road with than the creator of the revolt,
former leadership by individuals Its bumps, or the road depart- ment,"
On the Government control of
art, he quotes
Slendhat thus:
"Even if the king is an angel,
his Goverunent destroys art,
and his own covering up of Stalin's
crimes, Stendhal again:
he
quotes
What was the spark?
in Minister son had taken the
Taiwan
Brave New World. was not all jam
The Hungarian refugees who of pure Magyar descont, Janes arrived in Austria in November End and December, 1956, were given Kadar, Gyorgy Marosan
a warm welcome and immediate Gyula Kallal,all veterans frum
assistance. (That early concern Rakosi's
the gaois, assumed
for them prompled the recent most spectacular positions in the
pronouncement of the Rew government. The foreign Government, asking for a similar not because it bans the subject Paul Ignotus, the former affairs wera entrusted to the of a puluting. but because it member of the Presidium of the
Suave-mannered diplomat Istvan treatment of the 700,000 anti- Communist refugees in Hong- crushes the soul of the artist Association of Hungarian Writ- Horvath, former
kong.) ...Even though the Ministers ers, was also credited with be- London, whose be the most honourable men in Ing the spark that led to the part in the fight against the world, toadyism, flattery, explosion. However, Mr Ignatus, Russians and escaped to the and obsequiousness will stili. a man of honour unwilling to West alongakdo the other free- develop." On his own behalf pose with false feathers, declared dom fighters. Ehrenburg adds that for the Just at his recent press con- wilter to be able to write crm-ference in Hongkong that during and some improvement in
The change la personalities the tively he must have "enthu the months in his office he had production and distribution
However, as time passed, the singm und inner
of initial concern faded. The U.S. freedom." concentrated on the affairs of
consumer goods were, however, Congress refused 40 transform And, in partial explanation of the Association. with no fime the only concessions the Hun- his own toadying in the past for politics.
the temporary residence permits garian people were lo got. In granted to the 33,000 new re- October 1866 the Russians might fugees there to permanent ones, It is equally certain that the have been willing to make murts in spite of the request by Presi- "At fault is majority of the freedom fighters generous concessions, In urder dent Elsenhower. The recent the society which demands could not be inspired solely by to avert the night. But once light spell of unemployment hit herd hypocrisy, punishes for truth, the "Liberal Marxist writers It had to be, the leaders of the some of the 25,000 In Caneda, and stides large feelings on be- and intellectuals ned their Kremlin exacted ruthlessly the Difficulties half of a multitude of conven-merely argumentative opposition fruits of their hard-earned "vie- habilitation were encountered in
refugees tions,"
to the regime, because they op- tory". Hungarians in exile call England, Western Germany and To round of his argument pesed, the so-called "National the intensided oppression that Ireland. There came demonstra- Ehrenburg maintains that the Communism" as much as the followed the final liquidation of tions, wrecking of premises, and
Communism greatest lesson to be found in Muscovite
the revolt the new "Bach Age" hunger strikes. Stendhal L his exceptional Rakosi and Gero,
-after the Hapsburg admini truthfulness."
Those, He adds: "That
allogother strator whose reactionary reign Or all the theories advanced had followed the defeat of the 40.000 Hungarians who are stil not only for writers but for the most likely, though
Hungarian war of independence in Austria and Yugoslavia, are all people of the mid-twentieth proven, is thu one published: In în 1940.
in danger of being swamped ccatury. The more passion the West Gorman wockly
with the masses of the still un- there is in one's attractions and | Fortschritt some months" "ogo. The Communist oppression resettled old, early post-war re- tepulsions, the more Insistently According to that articlb the has been facilitated by the escape fugees and having to share the will conscience-yea and reason Hungarian uprising had been the at 200,000 of their worst enemies samo oblivion. Several thousand |---demand the truth,"
result of a co-operation between, to Austria or Yugoslavia after disappointed ones, 6,000 from To judge from Ehrenburg's tho anti-Communist elements the suppression of the revolt, as Austria alone, accepted the risk past writings his one great among the Leftist intellectuals in well as by the growing apathy of taking the Communist pro- attraction is the vision of a the officially recognised "Poto of the remainder, caused by the, mlaes for an amnesty at thoir Communist world and his poo Circle" (named after the great apparent Western Indifference face value and returned to Hun- great repulsion the capitalist Hungarian poet of the nineteenth towards Hamngarlan' freedom, a gary to an unknown drating world. What he wrote in this century, Sandar:Fotof) and an
The outbreak of revail in Hun- association article can by no stretch of the underground
af However, the revolt in' fun- gáry was followed by an on- Imagination be interpreted as “aj Right Swing __elements, the gary revealed that the masses of zingtio interest all over the plea for "bourgeois freedom" or "Fakelt, Turul”, mwening" "macie, the people, on whoso bahut the tree world.. It was particularly "Hadrought so 'esseruring to lie Weltish and "thre
is perhaps for us the main thing
תנו
of
I
17
India.
POCKET CARTOON by OSBERT LANCASTER
FOREIGN ELENASDE
CELOWECHSEL
BEA
bou
-re-
about
My dear. Willy, will you pienas reatise that we are no. longer in a posilium to rejer. to fless, traner, three fis cenime: places, commis drachmas and a igen: ten. jiras a chicken feed"...
In
'Wonder boy'
Tthe tender age of 31, Mertin became the "wonder bay" president of Wall Street, at a salary of £18,800 a year.
He started as a banker, follow- ing his father, and switched to stockbroking. He went back to the State banking system before the war to become ane of the youngest ever Reserve Bank bodses.
This ruddy checked in is nearly six feet tall and no ono could call him handsome. Ho
is quite a Washington person- ality, living in a red-brick Georgien mansion on the out- skirts here.
Unruffled
He married
0
daughter of Dwight Davis, giver of the Davis Cup for tennis which makes him a brother-in-law of top Treasury man Sir Roger Makins, Permanent Head of the British Civil Serviço...
Martin is tough and remains cnruffod by criticisms of his financial policles. Ho is 000- vinced that if a boom gets out of hand it is just sa dangITHAS as a slump.
But with the radio screarning at you all day to rush out and buy a 1987 car at cut pres his |policy hurts--particularly in the
pocket.
Mister Money launovad Like the doctor, he hopes he knows what is good for the patient, however, distasteful this medicine.
}