Evening star., 1942-11-18

signed. he mas DaVlo Lawrence.
realistically stated the main reason
why the last peace conference at
Paris failed. When President Wilson
went abroad and the armistice had
already been signed in 1918, the
leverage of the United States to
obtain peace treaty based on the
IA Points which were embodied in
that armistice agreement was gone.
Only when allies need the military
help Of one another during the war
itself can that leverage be main
tanned, for when the war is over the
compulsion of military force has
really vanished. Armies do not want
to fight any more and the nations
at the peace conference know that
decisions cannot be readily enforced
or that some of the things bargained
for will not be permitted to grow to
the point of an issue that would in
volve the use of force.
Would Remove Suspicious.
Because Mr.. Welles is known to
have given more thought perhaps to
the detail of peace treaty plans than
any one else in the administration
his words carry an extra signifi-
eance. He said in his speech:
1T seems to me that the first
essential is the continuous and rapid
perfecting Of q relationship between
the United Nations so that this
military relationship may be further
strengthened by the removal of all
semblance of disunity or of sus-
picious rivalry, and by the clarifi-
cation Of the free world goals for
which we are fighting, and so that
the form Of international organiza-
ton determined to be best suited to
achieve international security will
have developed to such an extent
that it can fully operate as soon as
the present military partnership has
achieved its purpose of complete
victory.
OF agreements between the United
Nations before the armistice is
signed upon those international ad-
sustments, based upon the universal
principles of the Atlantic Charter
end pursuant to the pledges con-
tanned In our mutual-aid agreements
with many Of our allies, which we
believe to be desirable and necessary
for the maintenance of a peaceful
and prosperous world of the future"
Those two paragraphs were given
minute consideration for many days
before. they were approved as ad-
ninistration policy, but they con-
tain the key to the manner in which
our Government believes the ap-
proach to a peace treaty can be
made. The discarding Of the old
idea of peace conference with
Quarrels between allies, when little
can be done to enforce agreement
even on matters previously pledged,
Is to be noted in the following de-
ecription of the Paris conference
given by Mr.. Welles:
Surely we should not again re-
sort to the procedures adopted in
1919 for the settlement of the future
Of the world. We cannot afford to
permit the basic issues by which
the destiny of humanity will be de-
termined, to be resolved without
prior agreement, in hurried confu-
sion, by group of harassed states
men, working against time, pressed
from one side by the popular de-
mand for immediate rehabilitation,
and crowded on the other by the
exigencies of domestic politics.
CorrOlary to Proposal.
IF we are to attain our free world
the world of the Four Freedoms
to the extent practicable-the essen
tial principles of international po-
litical and economic relations in that
new world must be agreed upon in
advance and with the full support
of each one of the United Nations, so
that agreements to be reached will
implement those principles"
The corrolary of that proposal,
however, is that in working out the
agreements in advance there should
be no secret treaties or agreements
which are in any way likely to be
repudiated by popular opinion after
the war. Similarly, there is another
question of very practical nature
that has to be solved, and that's how
the enemy countries are to be treat
ed in the proposed framework of a
united family of nations.
If the peace is to be punitive, that
fact alone would tend to prolong the
war and incite enemy people to pre-