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Page 241 propaganda machine. Apart from the Communists and the 'Cryptos -the Communists without the pluck to call themselves by their proper names very few people were shocked by the homely language he chose to employ at the London Conference in January.

However, there is no use in concealing the fact that the Soviet propaganda and their general attitude have made a profound impression upon this country since the war and people are wondering very much whether the Soviet Government really wish to be friends with Britain and to work wholeheartedly for a speedy re-establishment of peace, freedom and plenty throughout the world. Across the ocean, in Canada and the United States, the unfriendly Soviet propaganda has also been very effective in the reverse direction to what was intended. The handful of very able men who hold the 180 million of Soviet citizens in their grasp ought to be able to get better advice about the Western democracies.

"For instance, it cannot be in the interest of Russia to go on irritating the United States. There is no people in the world which is so slow to develop hostile feelings against a foreign country as are the Americans, and there is no people which once estranged are more difficult to win back. The American eagle sits on his perch, a large strong bird with formidable beak and claws. There he sits motionless, and Mr. Gromyko is sent day after day to prod him with a sharp pointed stick-now in his neck, now under his wings, now his tail feathers."

Mr. Attlee (Prime Minister)-Speech at the Mansion House, 10th November, 1947 "It is surely strange that in face of these facts Russian statesmen and journalists still accuse Britain of imperialism. If there is imperialism in the world to-day, by which I mean the subjection of other peoples by the political and economic domination of a powerful nation, it is certainly not to be found in the British Commonwealth.”

Mr. Bevin (Foreign Secretary)-House of Commons, 18th December, 1947

Then came the Marshall speech at Harvard. We welcomed that speech and we tried to turn it to the advantage of Europe as a whole, but, to our great grief, instead of every country taking advantage of that plan, the Soviet Government stepped in and used tremendous pressure on their immediate neighbours, and, in fact, ordered them not to participate. I feel that this action was violating the free choice of these States, and really interfering with their independence and sovereignty. A campaign was then started by the Soviet Union against this attempt to help Europe as a whole, applying epithets to it which I have always felt were totally unjustified."

Mr. Attlee (Prime Minister)-Broadcast, 3rd January, 1948

. Soviet Communism pursues a policy which threatens with a new form of imperialism-ideological, economic and strategic-the welfare and way of life of the other nations of Europe. In Communist Russia privilege for

the few is a growing phenomenon and the gap between the lowest and highest incomes is constantly widening.

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Mr. Morrison (Lord President of the Council)-At Leicester, 11th January, 1948 . . There is nothing we would like better than active co-operation with the Soviet Union for protecting the peace and promoting the social well-being of mankind; but we cannot be expected at all times to lie down to the untruthful and malicious attacks which are made upon our country and our Government by the reckless propaganda machines of the Russian Communists and of the Communist Parties of the world, which conduct themselves as the servile automatic outposts of the Soviet Foreign Office.

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We cannot be expected to be happy when country after country in eastern and south-eastern Europe finds itself subject to undemocratic and unrepresentative Communist Government, coupled with the suppression of other political parties

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