Evening star., 1943-08-27
Peace and World Order
Are Allied War Aims
By Maj. George Fielding Eliot.

DH MuJ. OSO yC FICtutNH EftOL.
Sometimes it helps to sit down quietly
for little while and do little plain
thinking of the brass tacks variety.
We Americans, in association with our
Allies, are fighting a war against pow
| erful enemies, a war which is costing us
a bitter toll of lives, to say nothing Of
money, goods and precious time. What
are we fighting for?
| Why are millions of American men
overseas, attacking the Germans and
the Japanese? Why are We so deter
mined to push this war through to the
| point of unconditional surrender? What
| does 1t all mean-to each of us, as Amer
ican citizens and as human beings?
Instantly and instinctively, each of us
answers that question in his heart-we
are fighting for victory and peace, and
| the day when the boys come home in
triumph, and families are reunited and
we can begin to build again, each in his
| own way, for his own future and the
| future of his deai. ones.
But just what do we mean by vic.
tory and peace?
Victory, Of course, in the military sense,
means overthrow of those who have
threatened us all, our national safety,
our way of life, our freedom to live
and work and pursue happiness-and
who have outraged our sense of Justice
and decency and humanity by their
brutal use of force to achieve their ends.
We cannot feel safe while these ma
tions have weapons in their hands, and
the means to use them against us or
our Allies. They have placed themselves
outside the scope of any negotiated
peace; we cannot deal with them at any
intermediate point short of their becom-
Ing completely helpless to injure us. No
peace that involves taking German or
Japanese word for anything whatever
can have any value. Our enemies must
be utterly defeated and disarmed.
But this is not all for which we fight.
II each OF us were to examine his heart
and his conscience in this matter.
think that in the vast majority, Ameri-
cans would find they already realize that
there must be something more. Having
beaten our foes by the exertion of the
last ounce OF effort of which we are
capable, we shall need some assurance
that we shall not have to exert such
effort again, or make the attendant sac
rlnces. We shall need that assurance
as the cornerstone upon which we shall
oegln TO build anew Without that cor
nerstone, no building for the future
whether national or individual. will
seem of much use
This time, the Vigilance Committee Of
the world, called together to DESTROY the
outlaws VINO have threatened us all,
must not disband when its work is done.
as 1t did last time. Rather must it 70 on
10 the formation OF an orderly society
Tor the world community, one which
can keep the peace of that community
IN the only way that the peace of any
community has ever been kept since the
world began-by the controlled and
timely use OF force in the hands of the
law-abiding majority.
There is abundant evidence that In
America, in Britain and the British
Dominions, in Russia and France and
China. men and women are beginning
10 think in these terms, perhaps vaguely
as yet, but with rising tide Of passion
ate resolve that their children shall not
be the cannon fodder of another world
war. And that evidence the enemy sees
and interprets as well as we do.
Remember, that If we fight for victory
and peace, the enemy fights for entirely
dlnerent objectives. Neither in Berlin
nor in Toxic is there now any small
lingering hope Of military victory this
time. AS for peace, neither the war
lords OF Germany nor the warlords of
Japan can bear the thought OF such A
peace as that for which We fight. Such
a peace is the negation of all their
dreams of conquest.
Under such peace, they could never
rearm; they could never hope to start
all over again later. The day of which
they are dreaming even now-when our
vigilance shall have relaxed and when
political division shall again have weak
ened us-would never come. Under
such peace, the criminal nation would
have no more chance for a successful
career of crime than the criminal indi-
Vidual has in properly organized So
ciety today. They abhor the very thought
OF such a peace. these warlords of the
Axis.
That is why they go on fighting. That
is why they call on their peoples for
fresh sacrifices, though they know that
these sacrifices can but delay the in
evltable end. They hope that by making
1t cost us dearly, we shall weaken and
leave them some remnants of power.
we shall stop somewhere short of uncon-
ditional surrender. we shall consent to
negotiated peace with some sort of
false-front government. They hope that,
meanwhile, with the passage of time and
the strain of sacrifice, they can find
some way to divide us, one nation from
another, and to divide us internally as
well by appealing to the forces of re-
action, er-nationalism and distrust.
1t Is this for which our enemies fight
now-to make impossible the peace, the
true and lasting peace, that is the only
worthwhile fruit of victory to the free
peoples of the world. They think we
do not understand; but it is they who
do not understand. To their bitter cost,
they are now about to learn that thew
have to deal, nc; with a few statesmen
and generals, but with millions of free
men and women in whose hearts vague
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