Evening star., 1944-06-01
Agreement Seen Near
On Peace Principles
Plan Of World Organization
In Line Win U. S. Concepts

iaH Oh WOri0 OrganlZatlOn
In Line Win u. S. Concepts
By Dauid Laurence
Agreement on a set Of basic principles
for an international organization to
preserve peace may be an accomplished
fact before many weeks have elapsed.
Foreign governments now have
draft which o group of United States
Senator'S Of all political parties consider
to be In keeping with American tradi-
tions and American constitutional con-
cepts.
The new organization win be pat
termed after the League OF Nations ir,
the sense that II viii not be dominated
by the larger powers to the exclusion
the smaller nations. Nor WIN any
nation be expected to yield It's SOW
ereignty to super-state.
Small nations win have representa-
ton on the executive council so that
1t win not be possible to say that four
nations rule the world. The funda-
mental idea, however, Is that Great
Britain. China and the United States
must In the transition period at least
furnish the backbone Of any interna-
tional force that may have to be used
to preserve peace.
Principles and Concepts.
All these principles and concepts are
not new. They have long represented the
considered thought OF statesmen of all
friH uh xxrt>n txxA~
organization should be- Unfortunately,
what was contained In the League of
Nations covenant or what will be con.
tinued In the constitution of new
world organization Is only part of the
story.
When President Roosevelt said, for
instance, in his press conference the
other day that he and Secretary Hull
were trying to keep the subject from
becoming involved In our own politics
he was touching on the heart and root
OF the whole problem. For there are
political parties and groups and factions
In all countries and foreign policy is
made the football OF the politicians in
other countries as well as In our own.
The only antidote for the poison of
party politics Is wider understanding
by the people as a whole so that the
politicians cannot mislead or misrepre-
sent issues and thus throw the people
into confusion and inertia.
What is more needed than anything
else at the moment is postmortem.
Who is responsible for the plight of the
Allies in the present war--or rather for
the conditions that made 1t possible for
Hitler and his gang to start the WARP
What politicians in France and Britain
stood idly by and refused to take the
necessary steps to build up arnnaments
Of their respective countries? Why was
1t that Britain and France, who were
much nearer to Germany than we In the
United States, did so little between
1888 and 1889 to safeguard their own
position2
These are the points on which very
little is said nowadays because both in
Britain and America there Is tend
ency to throw a smokescreen over what
happened since 1888. Indeed, the habit
seems to be forming TO say that what
happened In 1918 and 1920 was wrong,
and that all the mistakes that led to
the Second World War were made In
those years. As matter Of fact, what
happened in the United States was OF
tremendous Importance, but unfortu-
nately, apart from the viewpoint of
factions within the United States, 1T is
fact that leadership on international
questions on this side of the Atlantic
followed to certain extent what was
happening on the other side. So long
as the Baldwin government was not
stirred up by Hitler's preparations. and
so long as the Bloom government in
France did not get interested, in the
possibility of forthcoming war with
Germany, it is not surprising that Amer
ican public opinion was not alert to
the dangers either.
Real Question.
The real question that has to be an
swered is what can be done by written
or unwritten agreements with other
nations to bring about the kind of
vigilance that Britain and France failed
to exhibit between 1888 and 1889 Was
1t lack of character? Was 1t fear OF
political consequences that led British
and French government ministers to
ignore the danger across the Rhine?
1t has been said again and again that
when Hitler marched into the Rhine
land in November, 1895, he could have
been stopped. It would not have taken
the kind of international police force
so many people are suggesting today to
do the job. 1t certainly would not have
cost the tremendous amounts of money
subsequently, expended in this war. All
reports from Germany agree that Hitler
took chance when he marched into
the Rhineland. He was testing out the
British and French resistance. He sus-
pected the politicians of Britain and
France would not rise right away to the
emergency, and he was right.
So while it is commendable for Presi-
dent Roosevelt and Secretary Hull to be
trying to write, in agreement with other
nations, new constitution for a world
organization, it is even more important
to find out what can be done to rid
democracies of the cancerous influences
Of party and factional politics which
cause the national character of nations
to grow decadent even as foreign foes
grid themselves for aggressive war.
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