Evening star., 1944-01-30
Closer Congress Ties,
with State Department
Urged by vandenberg
BY BLAIR BOLLEs.

Senator Vandenberg, Repub-
lican, of Michigan, protesting
that before the Pearl Harbor
attack the administration had
kept Congress uninformed about
the realities that were sweeping
us toward the inevitabilities Of
war;" last night called for i'm
proved liasion between the State
Department and the Capitol for
development OF a program to
preserve the peace after victory.
"The nearer we can approach
more complete International ex-
change and understanding among
the Constitutional partners who
must deal with foreign policy, the
safer our course will be-" Senator
Vandenberg said. Long steps have
been made in liaison, he added, but
there is still much progress needed
in this diretcion."
In the final of the radio programs
series entitled, "The State Depart
ment Speaks" Senator Vandenberg
discussed the relations between the
department and Congress with Sec
retary of State Hull, Assistant
Secretary of State Breckenridge
Long, Chairman Connally of the
Senate Foreign Relations Com
mittee and Speaker Rayburn.
Mr.. Hull said he believed the goal
OF a peaceful world is attainable
as long as there is collaboration
among the nations and patience,
tolerance good will and readiness
to play our full part" He added:
There will be many difficulties to
overcome. They can be overcome If
our people continue to see clearly
that the price of failure is national
disaster and if the Congress and the
executive continue to work together.
Unprecedented tasks will con-
front our Nation and its Govern
ment In the difficult days that will
follow the cessation of hostilities.
In some ways the postwar tasks will
be scarcely less exacting than those
which face us now. Our supreme
task in the future will be to make
sure that all does not happen again. >
UNRRA Collaboration Cited.
Senator Vandenberg cited the COL
laboration between Capitol Hill and
the State Department in working
out the United Nations Relief and
Rehabilitation Administration agree
ment as good example of co-opera-
tion. But he said the departments
White Paper peace and war;" which
traced the events leading up to the
conflict and was published last year
told him many things he had not
known before.
Congress cannot legislate intel
ligently in vacuum" Senator Van
denberg said. Il am sure Peal Har-
Dor wasn't one-tenth as much of
surprise to the President and the
State Department as it was to the
House and Senate and the country"
Mr.. Vandenberg, a member Of the
Senate Foreign Relations Com
mittee, said he realized that "diplo-
macy cannot always function in a
town meeting and that there are
many delicate international negotia-
tions which cannot always be broad
cast even to 531 members Of the
Senate and House"
Closer Ties Urged.
But I profoundly believe that
national policy-a peoples foreign
policy-will be surer and safer in
proportion as these constitutional
partners may draw closer together
in the discharge of their mutual
functions" he added.
Mr.. Hull replied that "the Presi-
dent and I and other responsible
officials did everything we could by
utterance and acts to make clear
and emphasize these growing dam
gers" He added:
IF these repeated warnings failed
to impress some of our people, can
only explain such failure by the
fact that during that period too
many of our people profoundly be-
lieved that no serious danger from
foreign wars did or could threaten
this country, and that about all the
Nation had to do to keep out of
war was to stow of 1,oyoa opd ,,o;nd