The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1944-10-06

4
preserved. But the President was
hadlv advised, and instead OF urg-
ing General Sikorski to dominate
the irreconcilable Poles and work
out settlement, General SlkorsA
was told that these questions could
be postponed until after the war.
To pospone them was to lead the
polish and Soviet irreconcilables to
die in. and to become involved In
a poisonous quarrel
Two years later, when the stu
alton among the Poles ana De,
tween Poland and the Soviets mao
,ecome acutely unmanageable, MI
Churchill. with Mr.. Roosevelt sup
porting him, has tried to settle tne
problem on the lines which MI.
Roosevelt would OF approve IN
1912. But now their terms are TOO
little because they are offered TOO
late: the rift between the Lonoon
Poles and the Moscow Poles has
become a chasm, suspicious nave
become enmity, n d Mikolajczyk
does not have anything Like the
personal authority which SlkorsN
had. For it takes very strong
man in any country to make a
settlement which involves conces-
sions to a foreign power.
The case of Italy is not so clear
because the problem presented by
Italy has been how to find a strong
friendly government in a country
Of which only the weakest part had
been liberated, a country in which
whole generation under Fascist
rule had been deprived Of the ex.
oerience of self-government. New
| theless, it was evident from the
beginning that there could be no
workable Italian government which
was not led by proved anti-Fa-
scists and was able, therefore, to
find in the mass of the Italian peo-
pie men who had the will to make
Italy free and to keep her civilized.
That such a government could be
assembled around the despicable
/ King who had served under Mus
/ solini was unthinkable, ard after
while the British government rec
ognized this fact.
But the measure was taken SO
late that when it was taken, it had
lost all the tonic effect W h b
would have been caused by the
immediate deposition Of the I'm
worthy King. In these affairs it is
not only necessary to be right, but
to be right at the right time, and
there can be little doubt that by
taking the right measures in Italy
so late, there is an even weaker
government in Rome than there
might have been or need to be.
As to France, Mr.. Roosevelt is
now insisting on being too late
with too little. First he professed
not to know, though all who knew
French affairs did know, whether
the French people would accept
the provisional government pre-
sided over by General de Gaulle.
Then when the French people &C.
copied this government, Mr.. Roose-
welt, contrary to the advice of the
State and War departments, has
still continued to withhold recog.
milton.
This is a most dangerous pro-
ceeding. The present government
of France needs every ounce OF
authority it can muster at home
and all possible support abroad.
It is governing a country wracked
by defeat, betrayal, enemy occu-
patton, and the devastation OF
war. There is no other possible
government Of France at the pres
ent time, and to pursue a policy
which lowers its prestige, which
weakens its authority, which
wounds the feelings Of Frenchmen
whose nerves are raw from their
suffering, is as foolish as it is
cruel
No one can say how France will
come through the purging and the
radical reconstruction which must
take place il France is to live
again. But what one can say is
that there is no sense whatever
in our failing to do everything
within our power, and with the ut
most generosity, to make the or.