GalleryA cui bono?!
But we know that not only Mr. Young, but many other European diplomats and statesmen in 1922 still expected that the BolshevikIt is also unfair to call the Baltic democratic governments, raped by the Bolsheviks, "fascistic," as does Mr. Lippman in one of his editorials.* It is also a well known fact that the label "fascistic" has been pinned without discretion, upon any government which does not please the Bolsheviks, especially now, when the U.S.S.R. by a coincidence has become a member of the United Nations and is eager to obtain recognition of the fait accompli in the Baltic. Mr. Lippmann, being well informed about European modern political history, should know that the Baltic governments of 1938-39 could be qualified as national unity governments of democratic reforms, headed by experienced democratic statesmen—K. Ulmanis in Latvia, A. Smetona in Lithuania and K. Paets in Estonia—all founders of their respective republics. This would not be the first time in history that democratic governments with such authority functioned. The distinguished British author B. Newman, who visited the Baltic States in 1934 after K. Ulmanis took power, in the following words characterizes Ulmanis:
"Then, in May 1934, Karlis Ulmanis established himself as Vadonis or leader: the mildest revolution and the most paternal dictatorship ever staged. There was nothing Fascist about the regime. I saw Ulmanis among his people, a peasant leader among peasants. He had no body-guard: he never wore a uniform." (Incidentally K. Ulmanis, as a political exile of Latvia's revolution of 1904-05, lived for many years in the United States, where he graduated agriculture at the Lincoln University, Nebraska. In 1913 he returned to Latvia. In 1918 proclaimed Latvia's independence. In 1936 became President of Latvia. In 1940 was arrested by the Bolsheviks and deported to the U.S.S.R.— Ref.!) "The only suggestion of Fascism in Latvia—continues B. Newman—lay in the Aizsargi, a corps halfway between Blackshirts and Homeguards. Its important feature was that it owed allegiance to the State, not to an individual or party." (The Aizsargi were established already in 1919 as a state-guard for ensuring the constitutional order. The respective law was passed by the Latvian Parliament. As a supplementary police force and a patriotic organization the Aizsargi were also busy when forest-fires broke out or floods threatened, etc.—Ref.). "And—to quote again B. Newman—considering its limitations Latvia did well in its twenty years of freedom: education was of a high standard. There were few wealthy people, but fewer paupers . . . The spirit of progress was always apparent: the greatest need of Latvia was the one thing denied—another twenty years of peace."**
It is also known that the U.S.S.R. had no grounds whatsoever for insisting on the recognition of their domination over the Baltic States, achieved by the most devious processes and with the blessing of Hitler and Co., and in result of faked elections, falsely called by the Bolsheviks a "plebiscite," effected on July 14-15, 1940, in the Baltic States under heavy pressure of overwhelming Red Army forces. These forces occupied the Baltic States in result of unprovoked aggression and breach of international law and treaties, especially the convention defining aggressors, signed on July 3, 1933, in London. By an unfortunate slip a London newspaper
Also the decision of the Baltic puppet parliaments installed by the U.S.S.R. to ask for incorporation into the U.S.S.R.,—was of the same enforced nature.
The evident facts of the sacrilege of international law made by the U.S.S.R. cannot be whitewashed. We regret very much that such an outstanding person as Mr. B. Bracken, British Information Minister, when visiting New York, on August 27, 1943, made to the American press a statement that "Russia had never broken her word since the establishment of the Soviet system ..."**** A cui bono?!
| The Washington Post, April 6-13. 1943. | ||
| B. Newman, The New Europe, New York, 1943, pp. 183-184. | ||
| B. Newman, op. cit., p. 207. | ||
| The New York Times, August 28, 1943. |
