Evening star., 1944-07-30

work OF the experts will be followed in
detail by the foreign ministers of the
four powers, Mr.. Hull, Sir Anthony Eden
of Great Britain, v. M. Molotov of Soviet
Russia and DR.. T. V. Soong of China.
The coming conference has its genesis
and legal raison detre in Articles w
and V of the Four-Power Declaration
drawn up in Moscow last October by
Messrs. Hull, Eden and Molotov and
signed for China by her Ambassador
there. These articles provide
That they (the four powers) recog-
nize the necessity of establishing at the
earliest practicable date general inter-
national organization, based on the prin-
ciple of the sovereign equality of all
peace-loving states, and open to men,
bership by all such states, large and
small for the maintenance of inter-
national peace and security
That for the purpose of maintaining
international peace and security pending
the re-establishment of law and order
and the Inauguration of a system of
general security, they will consult with
one another and, as occasion requires,
with other members of the United Ma
tions with view to joint action on be-
half of the community of nations"
Ready to Consider Plans.
Since this declaration was drawn up
last year. the four powers have been in
frequent consultation as to the means
of translating this pledge into an actual
fact. Obviously, as long as the issue of
the outcome of the war, particularly in
Europe, remained in doubt, it seemed
futile to progress too far with plans for
postwar peace.
However, the series of military vic
tories won during the last six months by
Russia on the eastern front, by the
Anglo-American powers in Italy and
lately in France, and definite evidence
that the tide Of the war in the Pacific
Is turning in our favor, now provide a
realistic basis for the discussions 1t is
noteworthy, perhaps, that Secretary
Hull announced the conference only a
few days after We and the British had
established beachhead in France
None of the other powers has yet an
nounced a definite plan for the postwar
security organizations, and it is under
stood in diplomatic quarters that the
American project, recently Sketched by
President Roosevelt, will be taken as the
basis of the discussions at Dumbarton
Oaks. 1t will be subject, of course, to
additions and notifications that may be
offered by the British, Russians and
Chinese
The American plan is the result of
long study. 1t was begun about two
years ago by a committee set up in the
State Department and consisting of
DR.. 1siah Bowman. noted economist and
former president of Johns Hopkins Uni
versity; Myron c. Taylor, presently
American representative at the Vatican;
and the late Norman C. Davis, until his
death chairman of the American Red
Cross and for many years a diplomatic
adviser to the administration.
Mountain of Data Ready.
Their work has been carried on by the
State Departments Committee on Post
war Problems, of which DR.. Leo Pasvol-
sky, one of Mr.. Hull's special assistants
and an economist of note, is the secre-
tary and guiding spirit.
On the factual level. the committee
has had the aid of the Division of Inter-
national Security and Organization and
the Division of Territorial Studies of the
State Departments Office of Special Po-
litical Affairs, headed by Edwin c.
Wilson. These divisions have amassed
mountain of data bearing on economic
and political questions.
So, whatever else the coming confer
ence may lack it will not want for thor
ough preparation as did the Versailles
conference whose post-World War peace
structure proved too f1imsy to stand
against the rising tide of fascism
On the surface, the American plan
sounds almost like repetition of the
old Wilsonian projects. 1t provides, ac-
cording to President Roosevelt's recent
statement, for fully representative
body with broad responsibilities for pro-
noting peace and international CO.
operation" In other words, that will be
roughly analogous to the League Assem-
bly,, which included, in its heyday, vir-
tually every nation in the world.
1T is our further thought" the Presi-
dent continued. that the organization
would provide for council, elected an
nually by the fully representative body
of all nations, which would include the
four major nations and a suitable num-
her of other nations"
In other words, the major powers
would have permanent seats while the
smaller countries in the assembly would
sit alternately on the powerful executive
body. That Is precisely the same plan
followed in composing the old League of
Nations Council.
The parallel continues, according to
the President, in the proposal for IAN
international court of justice to deal
primarily with justiciable disputes" :"
That would appear to mean a body very
similar to the Permanent Court of In
ternational Justice.
But, according to officials here, the
difference between the futile prewar
peace establishment and that planned
now rates largely on the recognition that
the futuIA organization, II It u to be