Shades of Grey

The United Nations Report on Hungary, penned by that expert on East Europe, the Australian Ambassador to the Philippines, has been a damning indictment of the Russian intervention in that unhappy country. But we as students should know that few things are 100 per cent black or white Nor is there really justification to unthinkingly take this attitude over Hungary. It is freely admitted that the Report, because of the refusal of the Hungarian Government to co-operate was entirely based on evidence of refugees and newspaper reports from people that is, who had nothing to gain, and probably much to love if they in any way qualified their denunciation of Russia and Kadar.

The Communists themselves, it should be remembered, freely admit that the Rakosi regime was a very unpleasant tyrannical affair Nor do they deny that the students' demonstration was inspired by these genuine grievances But they maintain that the Counter-Revolutionaries took over this movement and made an attempt to restore some kind of Horthy like fascism. They further quote facts that are hard to deny [unclear: or] example. Allen Dulles, head of U.S. espionage, had just made a tour of Europe, leading Hungarian emigres happened to be m Paris at the time. Even the U.N. Report states that the American organised Radio Free Europe helped incite troubles—without being able to ease the situation when the explosion occurred And there is the major issue of anti-Semitism. Something which must to a certain degree be left unproven either way. But there are cases of people who fled Hungary to escape the Free Fighters. If everyone is released from the prisons one might expect some dirty work. The fact that since November most of the Jews have left the Provinces: that Kadar called on them to go to Budapest, where alone he could offer protection, or gave them opportunity to leave for Israel, all this shows that Jews and Government alike feared this resurgence of anti-Semitism.

All this does not make the Russians the saviours of the Hungarian people nor show that their intervention under the circumstances was justified. But it' does seem to show what we might already have expected, that the Revolutionaries were not perfect, and indeed had many black spots.

G.A.W.