The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1944-10-26
COMMENT ON WORLD
EVENTS

The war of words over hard" and
a soft" peace for Germany seems to
get hotter and hotter, with the Com
munists, their sympathizers and the
"fellow travellers" bowling loudest for
the blood of all Germans.
OF course the whole issue is a phony
Common sense should tell anyone who
considers the matter at all that the
issue is not between hard or a
soft" peace AS matter of fact, any
peace for Germany will be hard. With
millions of her young men lost on the
fighting fronts and in bombing attacks
at home, with many of her prOudest
cities devastated by the Allies air
fleets, with her great industries largely
shattered or in ruins, how could peace
be anything except hard, even if the
terms imposed by the United Nations
were very mild?
The only thing that matters is a
peace that will stick. That inevitably
means a peace founded on giving all
nations, as far as humanity possible, a
chance to repair the wounds of war
and obtain some of the good things OF
life. To do this will require the help
of all nations, including Germany and
the smaller nations that so foolishly
followed her into war.
II. Nj. MacIver in Towards an
Abiding Peace (Macmllan) is among
others who have stated what must be
done in the making of the peace, if the
world really is to have peace and not
war; Here is quotation:
'In making peace with defeated
nation the victors are most apt to dis
regard it's needs, to brand it with in
feriority, to subject it, to humiliate IT.
They do not ask What effect will this
have on the peace we make! They DO
not seek to understand the feelings of
the humiliated people.
''They do not realize that, after all,
the Inundated people are men and
just like the rest of us and will
react to such humiliation as we too
would react TO make a genuine
peace we must understand how the
)ther parties to the peace will react,
not Immediately but in the longer
future The best way is to ask our
selves how we would react to similar
The foregoing quotation is not plea
or soft" peace. 1T is plea for
settlement that will work, because it
3 founded on the golden rule-One OF
he most practical precepts ever set
orth.
Swedish newspapers present con-
'incing reasons for increasing aid to
he Norwegians, now reported suffering
serious food shortage. The Swedes
egret, write both Dagens Nyheter and
svenska Morgonbladet editorially that
hey are not allowed by the United
Nations to increase their present aid
o Norway. The papers give many |
easons why they believe that as soon
IS possible the Allies ought to ease |
he food blockade of Norway and to
ring this about they urge a new posi-
ion by the Swedish government to the
Allies.
A lifting of the blockade would not |
hey point out, set a precedent, since |
ther occupied countries are now being |
iberated. A real calamity is threaten |
ne i'm Norway. The Swedes would be
BILE to supervise satisfactorily such
elief and could, if given free hand,
ave the lives and health of thousands
f Norwegians, thereby preventing
vhole generations of children and
Dung people from being permanently
ffected.
The Allies relief policy in Greece
id not hurt their position--on the con-
rary it increased the peoples will to
esist, these papers emphasize.