Evening star., 1944-01-23
The Lions and Lambs

he Lions and Lambs
| Human nature and the world be-
Ing what they are, all the lions and
all the lambs are not likely to lie
down together in the next peace as
If there were no reason for any of
them to bother their heads about
the possibility of trouble among
themselves. The lambs will still feel
like lambs, and the lions like lions,
and depending on where they are
| located, certain lambs will not al
ways see eye to .eye with certain
other lambs; nor will the lions, with
out exception, think alike. But some
lambs and some lions. because of
their nearness to each other or be-
cause OF common interests in one
form or another, will tend to band
together in their own neighborhood
as kind of makeweight against
other lambs and other lions tending
to do the same thing elsewhere for
the same reasons.
Thinking out loud along these
lines, Field Marshal Jan Christian
SHUTS recently spoke of the trinity"
OF lions made up Of Britain. Russia
and America. with one of them
Britain-weak In relation to the
other two. Still thinking out loud.
in frankly speculative terms, the
South African Prime Minister, who
Is a world statesman of the first
order, went on to ask whether it
would not be good thing for the
small democracies in Western Eu-
rope to become members of the Brit
ish commonwealth Of nations and
thus create "a great European state,
great not only in it's worldwide
ramifications, great not only as an
empire, but great as power on this
continent and an equal partner with
the other colossi in the leadership of
the nations"
Not long afterwards, in direct an
swer to Field Marshal SHUTS, Meth
erlands Foreign Minister Eelco N.
van Kleffens spoke from London to
his countrymen in occupied Holland.
It was one Of the great misfortunes
Of the past, he said that small west
ern countries like Belgium, Norway
and his own-largely because of the
armament deficiencies of France and
Britain-felt obliged to stand aloof
from events by following a policy of
strict neutrality which served only
to facilitate Hitler's march Of con-
quest. Then, although ruling out
the idea Of a merger with the Brit
ish Commonwealth, the Dutch For
eign Minister came out openly with
the hope that in the future there
would be created "a strong forma-
ton in the west, with America, Can
ada and other British dominions as
an arsenal and a vast reservoir of
power, with England as base, espe-
cially for air power, and the West
European mainland-by which I
mean the Netherlands, Belgium and
Francois a bridgehead."
These two viewpoints-one sug-
geSting bloc to offset the Russian
and American "colossi" and the
other suggesting a bloc that would
include the United States and ex-
clude the Soviet Union-seem to
represent balance e-of-power thinking
wholly at variance with the idea of
world system of collective security
revolving around Britain, Russia,
China and the United States. Yet
the disparity may be more apparent
than real. for nations living in the
same neighborhood, with much the
same political beliefs and economic
interest, feel almost compulsion to
get together, and it is a question
whether, when they do this, it must
automatically follow that they and
other power groupings cannot COL
laborate under some overall world
organization to hold chronic aggres-
sors in check and administer an en-
during peace.
The question cannot be answered
easily one way or the other, but as
the talks by Field Marshal Smuts
and Mr.. van Kleffens have indicated,
it will very probably loom large in
the future. The lions and lambs, at
any rate, remain lions and lambs,
and when the shooting stops they
will not all at once start living ac-
cording to a single covenant. Their
problem will be to fit their different
arrangements-east and west-with-
in the framework of a general ar
rangement for mutually trustful
international cooperation. The So
luton is not likely to come readily
to hand: to suppose so is to forget
that ours is still an all too imperfect
world.