| Show Round Merry-Go-Round Pearson Learns Iron Curtain Is Just Barbed Wire By y Drew Pearson Pealon ALONGSIDE THE IRON CURTAIN Turkey Turkey Winston Winston well coined phrase the iron curtain has hai now become so universal that some people really believe the Soviet border is enca encased ed edin in iron hon Actually however the curtain is made of barbed wire wire and and rusty barbed wire at that This writer visited the southernmost segment of the iron curtain today at a aspot aspot I spot pot where Democratic Turkey and Communist Communist Com Com- Bulgaria meet This border is the start of a long tangled barricade zigzagging I north past Hungary Austria Czech Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia oslo German Germany and Poland And though the fields of winter barley arc are just as green breen on both sides of this barbed wire barricade it might just as well have been made of ot iron as far as free exchange of human inter inter- intercourse intercourse course is concerned I drove up to the curtain in a jeep with Captain and Lieutenant AH AU of the Turkish army The latter is in command of a man 10 detachment guarding guarding guard guard- ing the outpost The road leading to the curtain was pa paved pad d with old centuries stone and b beside the road were Roman wells built by Emperor Adrian But the traffic leading to the wire barbed-wire curtain aside from an ox team pulling a John Deere disc drill a tribute to the Marshall plan was nil nU Suddenly the road ended Ahead was an iron gate beating bearing that international English word known to every tongue Stop Beyond Beyond Beyond Be Be- yond it was another gate ate slightly rusty and dilapidated bearing the words Bulgaria in both French and Cyrillic This was the theiron theiron theiron iron curtain and the place which Turks call which significantly has two meanings the meanings the frontier and the neckline where ones one's head is chopped off Blockhouses Guard Curtain Curtain Alongside the gate was a series of blockhouses one one on the Bulgarian side a little shabby with some sonic of its window panes missing mis and two on the Turkish side both new and orderly One Turkish blockhouse set blockhouse set back from the iron gate but connected with it by a series of trenches trenches housed housed troops I climbed stairs inside the walled thick-walled parapet to the tower on top of or which a Turkish soldier stood scanning the landscape landscape land land- through field glasses Through his hii glasses we could see a Bulgarian guard guardin in the tower on the opposite side of theiron the iron curtain scrutinizing us From time to time lime he would run to the telephone e evi e evidently dently to notify his headquarters about our ourt f party Aside from this there was almost no movement mo on the frontier The sturdy walls pierced with rifle slots looked dOon dO down dow on nothing nothing- more than the win winter ter barley fields s and the long long barricade o of oI barbed wire extending north 1 I lri Prisoners oner E Escape A Escape A herd held of water bufalo falo alo grazed in the distance They did not know the difference between communism and democracy between Bul Bu j gana garla or Turkey Turkey Turkey-to to which the Truman doc doe doc trine is supplying arms and Marshall planE plan aid They only knew that the grass glass was wai just as green on either side JI j I I Sometimes remarked Captain sheep or buffalo alo get under the wire and i cross to the Bulgarian side and the Cori Com Communists shoot them Our farmers get gel no i chance to herd them back Sometimes also I learned Bulgarian political prisoners prison prison- ers sneak through the barbed wire at night to give themselves up to Turkish author authorities ties This happens at the rate of two or of three times per month and they tell a story of harassment and political suppression in j i what once was a relatively democratic I country J Climbing down from the watchtower r we moved mo closer to the iron curtain to th the second Turkish building This one wa was wai just six feet from the gate separating the two countries 11 1 On rare occasions an official with a properly passport is permitted t to pass through this gate and customs oW officials dials are kept on the Turkish side to handIe handle han han- 1 dIe dle such transits We Ve sat down a few feet J from the gate to drink coffee with the cus customs cusp toms officials The weather was cold but the sun was warm and I pulled my ch chair out onto a stone platform in the sunshine in full view of the Communist guards pe peering peer 1 ing down clown through rifle slots in m their watchtower watchtower watch watch- watch tower 50 feet away jI j- j I don dont don't t know and never nevel w will f ll know what wha 1 they thought of the stranger the stranger the civilian I dressed in Zvi western stern clothes who sat and drank coffee just below them I 1 dont don't e even I know whether they recognized me as a an i American but the Turkish guards who wh i watched them from the tower with their field glasses reported that on the opposite side of the iron curtain there was more more scurrying and more frantic telephoning back to their headquarters j t However the sun was warm and the coffee delicious and we wc lingered talking about the days when the army of Sultan battled with the armored knights knights' of the Polish king and the grand marshal of France in the days of the tho crusades acro across these same barley fields before the gates gate gates of j Battle attle for For For hundreds o ot of years men had fought to control this gateway gateway gate gate- way to the and they were still stil fighting But the big question is would another war start stait actively this spring Would the Russians attack before Eisenhower Eisenhower Eisen Eisen- hower bower has a chance to strengthen the the armies of western Europe before an Ameri Amen equipped can-equipped Turkish army becomes stronger before Marshal Tito further solidifies solidifies solidifies fies his hold on Yugoslavia j That is a question discussed in the chanceries and the coffee houses of the Near East and that is a question I 1 came to Europe Europe Europe Eu Eu- thie rope to try to answer Talking Talking- about it I drove back to Ad Ad- t drove back over o an old age-old blood d blood blood- soaked battlefield now planted in m barley by oxen and John Deere disc drills drills drills-a a battlefield battlefield battle battle- field sure to be one of the first points of attack if war comes conies Copyright 1951 95 Bell Syndicate Inc j. j |
