Askov American., 1943-12-09

tory. than others. / understand that
your plan assumes neutrality on in
ternal conflicts, and is against
neither evolutionary nor revolution
ary. social change. But my point is
that if internal combat can approxi-
mate the savagery of the Spanish
Civil War or the military climax of
a Gettysburg, dare we hope that a
mere geographical or chronological or
linguistic or economic propinqulty
will suffice? Will such arrangements
advance a true world federation any
more rapidly than framework, more
ambitious but less neatly organized,
without regard for the regional prin-
ciple?
2. Highly suggestive along this line
is your provision for tWo-way states,
which under appropriate circum-
stances can be members of two diff
ferent regional federations at the
same time. When this proposal is
examined, it appeals to what we
know of the situation in Switzerland,
Danzig, Armenia, Luxembourg, etc,
the states you Professionally so desig-
nate. But at once l think of Bel
gium too, with its Flemish-W Walloon'
population, its keen interest in French
culture and its economic connections
with northern and eastern neighbors,
not to mention its warm support of
the Oslo Powers; here, surely, is an
other candidate for such two-way
status, especially if you allocate the
Belgian Congo, in which modern Bel
gium has fairly we'll atoned for the
heavy-handed overlordship of the
Crown under the first Leopold, to
the Northern or Germanic Fedora
ton.
But one makes an alluring series
of discoveries, in studying many other
states, of how truly these also might
almost as we'll lay claim to a two
way relationship. The Argentines,
for example, have their bodies in
Latin America, but their souls reside
on the Champs Elysees; their most
stirring excitement is European cos
mopolitanism. They would be willing
to love their regional neighbors if,
on holiday, they could periodically,
and without penalty, escape to an
other jurisdiction.
What gives me pause is that, once
you get really inquisitive and ex-
pose to this same searching scrutiny
large percentage of the nations
which at first seem tucked away in
the proper regional bed-chambers,
you run into some decidedly COM
promising situations.
Isn't it fact, too, that during the
very years Immediately ahead when
it is important to get under way
your regional federations, much of
the world is going to be cursed by
hatreds which are capable of upset.
ting all the natural logic of terri
tory, economics, tradition, and mass
psychology? You have Norway in
the Germanic Federation, along with
Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and Aus
tria; but 1 wonder whether many
thousands of Norwegians would not
prefer, for long time to come, to
be closely linked with Iran, China,
or Bolivia than with even a chas-
tened Germany?
Are there not likely to be a hum
dred areas where confidence in the
idea of world federation, without in
termediate regional groupings, could
proceed just as rapidly as the method
you put forward?
Often the supposedly disinterested
nation at a distance is more easily
trusted than the neighbor with whom
irritating experiences have taken
place. Once 1 travelled down the
boundary between Wales and Eng
land. lover in that schoolhouse," my
English companion said, 'they will
be fighting the same feud as when
was boy"
"What feud is that"
ooh, the feud between us English
and they Welsh"
"Why any feud at all?" I inquired
Haven't you lived close enough to-
gether, and long enough, so you
understand each other?"
''That's just the whole trouble,
Sir" he replied. "The closer we get
to 'em and the more we understand
'em, the less we like 'em."
See what I mean?
ITO he coptip,,ad\