Communist "Neutrality"
"Although the Communists frequently claim to be supporters of neutralist countries, it is clear that their interpretation of neutrality is antagonism to the West. Their ultimate aim is not only to bring all neutral countries within their sphere of influence but also to crush any neutralist tendency in the Soviet bloc.
"An example of their treatment of neutralists is recalled by the partial amnesty announced by the Hungarian news agency MTI March 31. Although two writers and two former associates of Premier Nagy (who was secretly tried and executed) have been released, Istvan Bibo, a Minister of State in Nagy's government who advocated a 'Third Road', that is neutral status, for Hungary and numerous others will not be freed.
"This is not surprising because the most unambiguous revelation of the Communist attitude to neutrality was the treatment of the Hungary uprising in 1956 when Premier Nagy said that the Hungarian people wished to live in true friendship with all peoples of the world in accordance with the United Nations Charter and did not wish to join any power bloc. The Communist reply to this, put out after the rising had been brutally crushed, was that Nagy's decision to declare the country neutral and terminate the Warsaw Treaty was a crime against the fundamental interests of the Hungarian I people and a threat to the peace and security of Europe.
"This attitude to neutrality was amplified further by the Soviet journal Kommunist No. 18, 1958, which declared that for a 'bourgeois State' to declare its neutrality was 'progressive' but for a Communist country to do so was to act against the unity of the Communist bloc. And Khrushchev is on record as saying, according to Pravda on August 28, 1957, that 'in the present-day world there is a fierce struggle of two ideologies: the Socialist and the bourgeois, and in this struggle there can be no neutrals.'
"In this connection also it is noteworthy that since July, 1958, it has been a crime punishable by death for anyone in Communist Rumania to involve his country in a 'declaration of neutrality.'
"The Communist attitude to neutrality, so far as the non-Communist countries are concerned, was summed up in a comment by the Chinese People's Daily on March 18 last year which said that the 'policy of peace and neutrality of the Asian and African countries' could not but 'assume the characteristics of uniting with the Socialist, that is the Communist, countries against imperialism.'"
Communist "Trade"
"The new Polish-Cuban trade agreement signed on March 31 provides fresh evidence of the Communist bloc campaign to extend economic infiltration of the Latin American countries as a preliminary to political infiltration. The agreement provides for Polish import of coffee among other commodities in exchange for aircraft, helicopters and machinery of various kinds. The significant point about coffee purchases is that Poland which last year agreed to buy coffee from Brazil apparently now has more than she can conveniently use. According to an announcement by the official Polish news agency, the government have cut the retail coffee price by 24 per cent in an attempt to dispose of 'swollen reserves.' News that Poland nevertheless intends to buy still more coffee inevitably prompts the suspicion that the deal is inspired by purely political motives.
"Similarly, there are indications that Soviet purchases of wool from Uruguay are also politically inspired. According to the Soviet journal, Agriculture, quoted by Tass on March 31, the U.S.S.R. has surpassed every country except Australia in its total sheep flock and in the production of wool. This report follows the announcement last month that the Soviets were to set up a special bureau in Uruguay to negotiate further wool purchases.
"The possibility that Communist purchases are being made for political purposes is backed up by the fact that the Soviets have greatly increased their diplomatic activities in that country in recent years. These have developed to such an extent that last month Uruguay warned the Soviets Union that it would break off diplomatic relations if the latter did not curb its propaganda activities. There was also a suggestion that the Soviet Union might be asked to cut down its 80-man embassy in Montevideo to match the 6-man Uruguay mission in Moscow.
"Communist economic penetration is being carried out on an increasing scale in Latin America. The technique is to offer to buy export surpluses from countries suffering from balance of payments difficulties whether the goods are wanted or not. In the past the same technique has been used in the Middle East and Asia, the Communist bloc having bought cotton from Egypt and rice from Burma. Sometimes these unwanted commodities have been later sold at cut prices on the world market thus spoiling the traditional markets of countries from which they were originally bought.
"The kind of political trading is now an acknowledged part of the Communist armory. As Gerry McManus, who was formerly a member of the Canadian Communist Party central committee for 19 years, said in June 1959, 'For the Communist trade is an ideological weapon. If you deliver even 10 per cent of your national trade to the Communist world you give them the perfect chance to create a crisis in your country any time they wish to pull the economic rug from under you. For ideological reasons they are prepared to undersell any commodity on the world market.'
"The new Soviet oil offer to India shows a hotting up in the Communist trade offensive. The inclusion of a 25 per cent initial discount is plainly intended to discourage competitors, while the 'quantity' discount is obviously designed to encourage maximum purchases within the proposed limit of 2 million tons annually.
"This is the third Soviet cut price offer to be made in the space of two months, Japan and Cuba having recently agreed to take substantial quantities of Russian oil at prices well below any quoted on the international price list.
"Trade agreements with Guinea, Brazil and Argentina show how the Soviet oil drive is spreading to Africa and Latin America. Moreover, a Soviet mission recently tried to negotiate the sale of Russian crude oil to Australia, and the Ethiopian refinery Soviet engineers are building will process oil purchased in the U.S.S.R."
Communist Afro-Asian Approach
"Chinese, Soviet and East German representations at the second Afro-Asian Economic Conference held in Cairo from April 30 to May 3 threw another interesting light on the Communist approach to Afro-Asian affairs.
"The East German Government, undeterred by geographical qualifications, requested permission to send observers, as in the case of the recent AAPSC Conference at Conakry, although they clearly regard such meetings only as useful international platforms from which to make cold war propaganda against West Germany. The Chinese also value these meetings for similar motives, but are at least Asians. The Soviet claim to be an Asian power, however, has been increasingly challenged, and resulted in the passing of a resolution excluding the U.S.S.R. from full membership.
"There was Afro-Asian opposition to Soviet participation at the first Economic Conference in 1957 and at the Consultative Committee meeting in Bandung in April 1959 a resolution was passed on the draft constitution which excluded the U.S.S.R. on the grounds that she had not taken part in the original 1955 Bandung Conference, and that the seat of her central government was not situated in an Afro-Asian region. This resolution has now been ratified.
"In an attempt to forestall this opposition, the Soviet delegation to Cairo was given a deliberately Asian guise, as was that to the Conakry Conference. It comprised representatives of the Chambers of Commerce from eight Soviet Asian Republics.
"These republics, of course, are not genuinely independent sovereign but are governed from Moscow by the central government of the Soviet Union. Thus individual republics have no say even in drawing up economic plans for their areas.
"While the delegations from eight Soviet Asian republics at the Afro-Asian economic conference were doubtless at pains to substantiate their claims to political independence and, especially among Moslems, to religious freedom, it is interesting to note that in one of their capitals, Tashkent in Uzbekistan, a new atheistic club has just been opened in Central Asian University.
"The Soviets go to great lengths to play down abroad their anti-religious campaign and it is certain that no publicity will be given to the club, particularly as the ancient city of Tashkent is a central showplace for visitors from the Moslem communities of Africa and Asia. A Communist anti-religious campaign has been evident for some time and presumably the club is yet another instrument in what the Soviet journal, Questions of Philosophy describes, as the 'fight against the ideology of Islam.'
"In the Soviet Union the authorities have made every attempt to eradicate the Islamic faith, which is described as reactionary, unscientific and incompatible with communism. The majority or the Mosques have been closed or are used for secular purposes. There are no Islamic schools and the number of Islamic leaders has been reduced by more than 30,000 since 1914. In addition, the Soviet press and home broadcasts spare no effort to ridicule and discredit religious belief and to present the religious leaders as corrupt and contemptible figures."
"Peaceful Coexistence"
"The Summit Conference has been increasingly marked by references to the phrase 'peaceful coexistence.' For example, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Mr. Nash, said on his recent arrival in London from a visit to Russia, 'We all want peaceful coexistence—what that means.'
"There have been various definitions of what peaceful coexistence should mean. In the Western view normal relations between countries should be based on the understanding that people should be free to choose their own form of government and having chosen it should not be subject to attempts by other powers to impose an alien system on them. Incitement to national or racial hatred, or incitement to unrest, industrial strife, insurrection and revolt are incompatible with genuine peaceful coexistence since this would merely be a continuation of the cold war.
"The Communist view is, however, different. According to an article by V. Moskovsky published in the organ of the Central Committee of Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Kommunist No.2, 1960, 'Peaceful coexistence is not a tranquil parallel development of socialism and capitalism, it is a most acute economic and ideological struggle between them, a struggle not only for supremacy in the development of productive forces but also for winning over the millions of the minds and hearts of the toilers of the whole world.'
"Foreign audiences, however, are given a much more soothing version of the Soviet interpretation. For example, Mr. Khrushchev recently said in France that 'We must strive to ensure that peaceful coexistence should be transferred from mere absence of war into active cooperation among all states in the sphere of economics, culture and science."
"Cultural Exchange"
"The Soviet drive for African and Asian recruits to the new People's Friendship University in Moscow seems to have met with a poorer response than its sponsors anticipated.
"This may explain why Soviet delegates to the recent Afro-Asian People's Solidarity Conference in Conakry, capital of newly independent Guinea, exploited their visit by badgering students to enroll in the projected university. In an attempt to make these offers sound more attractive a Moscow English broadcast to Africa on April 24 alleged that an unspecified number of student 'volunteers' had hurried off to Moscow without awaiting the outcome of their applications for enrolment.
"The reluctance of students from the uncommitted countries to embark on a Communist-style education is hardly surprising in view of the misgivings raised by evidence suggesting that students attending the new university are to be carefully segregated from everyday Russian life. This is in contrast to the practice at Western universities, where foreign students enjoy free association and exchange of ideas with the people of host country."