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Show I CLIFF MEMMOTT, Editor FREEDOM FRUSTRATED EDITOR'S NOTE The following editorial was published . recently in the New York Times, and because of its timely message, we are reprinting the entire story this week. Inmates of a refugee camp in West Germany scrowled these words on their barracks: "We chose freedom Come in and see what we got!" An American journalist recently accepted their wry invita-ion. invita-ion. Inside the barracks he found a crowd of wretched men, women and children wasting their lives in squalor, stench and disease, provided with barely enough food for survival. In talking talk-ing to them he learned that they were bitter, despairing, hopeless. hope-less. Unhappily that camp is not an exception, it is typical of about 200 in Europe and the Near East, where tens of thousands who "chose freedom" often at the risk of death have received only misery compounded by the passing of bleak years. Some of the unfortunate have been in camps for as long as nine years. Hundreds of thousands of other fugitives from Communism, outside the official camps, are no better off. They live in ruined buildings, abandoned railway cars and rudely converted crates. Perhaps the most tragic among the unadjusted escapees to our side are the younger men and women, including defectors from the Red Army occupation forces. They look forward not only to personal freedom, but to a choice of active participation participa-tion in a genuine movement to liberate their native lands. With few exceptions they have been deeply wounded by disillusionment. disillusion-ment. . . It was inevitable that sooner or later the Soviets would take advantage of this situation. . . Ever since the end of the war, Moscow has spared no energy en-ergy to abuse, terrorize and demoralize its run-away citizens. . . There have been enough shocking instances of kidnapping and even murder, to rob the life of the refugee of a sense of safety. But within the last year, Moscow moved to supplement ter- ror with doses of honey. It has launched an intensive campaign of redefection, geared to lure fugitives to return home. The Soviet government so the story runs has been moved to pity by the condition of its prodigal sons and daughters. Let them come home and they will be welcomed with open arms. In East Germany, a "Committee for Return to the Homeland" Home-land" has announced itself, allegedly composed of refugees who had changed their minds and redefected. . . A newspaper put out by the Committee is reaching former Soviet citizens all over the world, the United States included. "Brothers and sisters," it-says, "return and the motherland will welcome you. Even those who are guilty before the motherland will be forgiven." Many exiles have been receiving letters from relatives self -evidently dictated by the Secret Police urging them to retrace re-trace trieir steps. "We miss you and yearn for you," the mis- sives declare. "Please come back quickly to those who love you." The process of softening-up by propaganda is often followed fol-lowed by personal visits from Soviet agents, who play on the victim's homesickness and make rosy promises. Cynical and transparent though the redefection drive may seem, it is becoming increasingly effective. Hundreds have already al-ready returned behind the Iron Curtain, thousands seem of a mind to do the same. In the refugee camps, the aforementioned journalist estimated, about 25 per cent seem prepared to go back. They still hate the Communist system and are full of forebodings fore-bodings as to what will happen to them. But their misery and hopelessness make them reckless and breed hopes in defiance of logic. They are easy targets for the Soviet manipulators. Every fugitive who returns to the Soviet prisonland is a resounding moral and political victory for Communism and, by the same token, a. great.. defeat for the free world. The g rowing row-ing success of the Kremlin's redefection campaign is the measure meas-ure of Western bungling in this area. The free world has been politically shortsighted and humanly callous. It has not lived up to the duty and the opportunity represented by those who chose freedom, confident of our humane feelings and political common sense. The United States has spent, and continues to spend, millions mil-lions of dollars in radio broadcasts and other activities intended to widen the gap between the Soviet regimes and their subjects. The effects of this investment are being cancelled out by the flow of returning and repentant fugitives. Each of the returners seems a living refutation of our claims, and the Soviets are past masters in making the most of this. . . There have, of course, been some efforts by free governments and voluntary agencies to assist the hard-pressed fugitives from Communism. 'But they have been inadequate, frequently niggardly, nig-gardly, and as frequently constricted with red tape. . . It is late, but not too late, for massive counter-measures to offset the redefection campaign. Those concerned with what is called psychological warfare have no more excuse for ignoring ignor-ing the challenge. Voluntary agencies such as the American Friends of Russian Freedom, must be given larger means to conduct work among the escapees that, within the narrow limits lim-its as yet possible, has proved effective. . . This is at once a call to humanity and a call to political wisdom. t "If children are not taught to obey at home, they will not respect authority when they grow up." Rev. Billy Graham, noted Evangelist. t "If you can't think of any other way to flatter a woman, tell her she's the kind of a woman who can't be flattered." Vincent Lopez. 30 |