Evening star., 1943-10-08

der a free sys- ~ ~
tenn OF govern David Lawrence.
ment for representatives of the legis-
latlve body to make the journey, see
everything that is to be seen, and
remain free to come back and tell
their fellow members of the Senate
In detail about their observations.
No executive hush-hush or mill
tary pressure affects the Senators,
but for reasons of their own, they
preferred to talk in a secret ses-
sion lest fragments of unauthorized
military information useful to the
enemy might be revealed.
Neither the President nor the high
officers of the Army or Navy under
took In any way to influence the
views of the five Senators, and yet
the most important thing they all
say on their return is that the war
on the whole is being well-managed
and is going well.
Overall Picture Difficult.
This does not mean that every
thing Is perfect or that errors are
not going to be stressed by the Sem
ators in the hope of bringing about
corrective action. On the contrary,
much of what the Senators brought
back that Is critical doubtless will
get more emphasis in the press than
the efficiency which they praised.
An overall picture of this global
war Is difficult thing to get, no
matter how long the visit to the
war zones or how intimate the op-
portunity for getting information.
But the five Senators-three of them
Democrats and two Republicans
did have an excellent chance to
gather impressions. They talked to
high staff officers and to the pri-
Yates in the ranks. There have been
some press dispatches from abroad
rejecting, unfortunately, some of
the customary criticism of members
of Congress-a tendency to belittle
the Importance of this type of visit,
What is forgotten is that the Con-
greS. with all its defects and with
Its many kinds of personalities,
is still free body and that no five
members of the Reichstag or of the
japanese parliament would be per-
mitted to have look at the front
and come back and talk about 1t In
the press or to their colleagues.
Two of the members of the group
Senators Brewster, Republican, of
Maine and Mead, Democrat, of New
York-are members of the Truman
Committee of the Senate, which has
for months been investigating the
production front. Three other men,
bers-Senators Russell, Democrat,
of Georgia; Chandler, Democrat, of
Kentucky and Lodge, Republican, of
Massachusetts-are on the Senate
Military Affairs Committee. So all
five had background of informa-
ton on war problems before they
left Washington, and they are able,
with the data acquired, to help even
more now in the drafting of future
legislation related to the military
effort.
Trip Well Handled.
Many more Senators wanted to
60, but tie War and Navy Depart
ments did not have the facilities nor
could arrangements for visits of
commanding officers be made unless
confined to relatively small num-
Der. The trip was well handled and
were it not for the airplane it would
not have been feasible.
What is accepted as commonplace
"a trip around the world by air in
q few Weeks-to the many areas
where the American flag flies is
really remarkable example of the
value Of aviation to the process of
government itself. 1t may be an in
dlcatlon Of what is coming in the
future. No longer perhaps will
American Senators who actually
never visited European country
be able to hold important posts in
the Foreign Relations Committee of
our Congress. With air transporta-
ton available it may we'll be that in
peacetime consultation between
members Of the legislative bodies of
the democracies will be something
more in the future than they have
beer in the past. There have leen
some useful parliamentary
meetings in the past, but they lave
been far too few.
The five Senators who went to the
war zones and undertook the strain
and hardships of travel around the
world in these times are to be COM
mended for their devotion to public
duty. One may not agree with all
that they bring back in the way OF
comment, but the most If their