Askov American., 1943-12-23

regardless of temporary and surface
hatreds stirred up by such conduct
as that of the Nazis.
1t is true, as you point out, that
the postwar world will be cursed,
for a while, by hatreds which are
capable of upsetting all the natural
logic" of which you spoke. But once
those hatreds have passed, then the
natural logic" of reality will make
it inevitable that any division of the
world along regional lines must fol-
low roughly the pattern traced in the
World Federation Plan.
I, personally, think that the mat
ural logic of reality will do even
more than that. l think it will not
only work toward realization of this
pattern of federations but will also
work toward an increasing closeness
and interdependence among the
members of each federation. At pres
ent the nations of the world are not
prepared to give up any considerable
portion of their national sovereign
ty, nor are they - as you have
pointed out - in many cases ready
to be closely linked with neighbors
in regional groups. The World Fed
Grafton Plan takes into account the
reality of existing attitudes and
opinions and prejudices and it does
not therefore demand changes and
sacrifices which the majority of ma
tions would be unwilling to make.
But it does lay foundation on which
its members may build closer and
more integrated and more centralized
union - if and when they desire so
to build. Regarding the Regional
Federations, for example, the World
Federation Constitution provides
that: Each Regional Federation may
amend its Basic Constitution by an
affirmative vote of two-thirds of its
MEMBERSHIPS, so as to achieve a
closer co-union - as, for instance,
common currency, customs, commod-
ity and public works organizations"
But that is a matter to be decided
in the future. At present, or rather
at such time as these Regional Fed
erations may be set up, they will
not bind their members together in
any such closeness as you seem to
fear.
Why then, it might be asked, have
any Regional Federations at all? Why
not, as you suggest, ''a simple world
federation without intermediate re-
gional groupings?" Well, in the first
place, as is explained in the Summary
Of the World Federation Plan, there
are too many natiOn-StateS to work
as satisfactory units in world or
ganization" and this difficulty sis
met by interposing between the gov
ernments of the seventy-odd sover-
eign nations and the Government of
the World Federation an interme-
diate mechanism of Regional Fedora
tions" In the second place, as l have
tried to explain above, the Regional
Federations have the very important
function of serving as foundation
on which their members may build
come the distrusts and antagonisms
that separate them now just as the
thirteen states were separated one
from another between 1776 and 1887.
Speaking of American history,
one of your arguments against the
regional set-up is that there might
be intra-regional wars as bloody as
the American Civil War or, as you
also mention, the recent civil war in
Spain.
MY answer to this argument is
simply that there could be no wars
of any kind, civil or otherwise, under
the World Federation, since poten-
TALLY beligerent groups would con-
troll no weapons with which to make
war. The abolition of war is the
primary objective of the World Fed
Grafton Plan and it is one objective
which will most certainly be achieved
if that plan is put into effect.
You approve of my provision
whereby such states as Switzerland,
OdIlZlS, ClS',
could become "TWo-Way States"
with equal rights in both of their
neighbor Federations. You then sug-
gest that this would be the correct
status for Belgium - a suggestion
with which I concur. I have, in fact,
already decided to classify Belgium
in this category in the next edition
of the World Federation Plan. But
you go on to voice fear that when
one exposes to searching scrutiny
a large percentage of the nations
which at first seem tucked away in
the proper regional bed-chambers"
one may run into 'some decidedly
compromising situations" and you
cite the case of Argentina, many of
whose inhabitants as you rightly
point out - "have their bodies in
Latin America" while their souls
reside on the Champs Elysees."
Although Argentina is one of the
best examples, it would also be pos
sible to find other nations possess