Shtampuyushchaya

On July 4, 1776, Thomas Jefferson paid -L-3/15s for a luxury -- a thermometer -- and that evening he set down in his journal that the Philadelphia temperature was 73 1/2DEG. If he said so, it was so. Thomas Jefferson was a man who knew, and meant, what he said, and no despot could have made him change his mind.

Just 170 years later, in Paris, James F. Byrnes needed a thermometer a lot more than Jefferson had. In the hectic week before the Russians finally agreed that a 21-nation Peace Conference should be called on July 29, the political temperature rose & fell dizzily as the Russians changed their minds and changed them back again.

Quick Shift. On the evening of July 4, 1946, V. M. Molotov had said: "Tozhe ne vozrazhayu--I, too, do not object." The other delegates thought that sentence ended ten months of wrangling over convocation of the Peace Conference. But the worst was ahead. Next day, Molotov, as one American delegate put it, "seemed to be oozing vast gobs of grey sweat." He returned with tight-lipped truculence to the Soviet position of blocking the peace. First, he insisted on excluding China from the inviting powers. Byrnes called this "a gratuitous insult" to China, but finally agreed to accept a draft of the invitation form previously proposed by the Russians themselves. Molotov then said that he could not now accept even his own draft. Byrnes began to get mad. He got madder when Molotov explained that he would hold up any invitation until the Big Four agreed to rules of procedure binding the 21-nation Conference.

Snapped Byrnes: "It is obvious that the Soviet delegate does not intend to permit these invitations to be sent until he has satisfied the purpose, whatever it is, he has in mind." Molotov now attempted a diversion; he suggested that the Foreign Ministers discuss Germany while the Deputies worked over the rules of procedure.

Byrnes replied: "I have had General Clay waiting in Paris for the last week so that I could be ready to discuss Germany at any time. But the Soviet delegate refused. I for one do not intend to be forced by Mr. Molotov into a discussion of Germany. . . . The Soviet delegate kept us here last night until after midnight so he could get his reparations money. I propose that we sit until midnight tonight and see if we can do something for the peace of the world."

They stayed in session till 9 p.m., but reached no agreement on the rules or the invitations. Over & over again the next day Molotov said: "The Soviet delegation cannot agree to anything which will violate the Moscow Declaration and which will make the Peace Conference a shtampuyushchaya mashina [rubber stamp machine]."

Byrnes made the answer for the Western powers: "If you fear that the Peace Conference will be a rubber stamp, let us leave it to the Conference to make its own rules. . . . Nowhere does it state, in the Moscow Declaration or anywhere else, that the Council of Foreign Ministers will establish the rules for the Peace Conference." Molotov came back with his sentence about the shtampuyushchaya.

Slow Peace. Non-Russian delegates were convinced by Molotov's manner that he had been reduced to a shtampuyushchaya mashina as a result of a telephonic bawling out from Moscow for being too soft at the July 4 night session. The Russians obviously wanted to delay the Peace Conference as long as possible because they knew that an overwhelming majority of the 21 nations opposed Russia's expansionist program. If the Conference had to be held, Russia wanted to tie it up with rules that would insure Russia against majority rule on the treaties.

On Monday, at the end of a five-hour session, Molotov finally agreed to a formula previously presented by Conciliator Bidault: the Ministers would recommend procedures (including a steering committee operating by two-thirds vote); but the Peace Conference would have the right to change the rules.

With that right clearly on the record, the Conference would not need to be a shtampuyushchaya mashina for its steering committee or for the Big Four.

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