Evening star., 1944-11-27
IdeoIism on Peace Seen
Facing Rough Shedding
Practical" Groups Still Insisting
might Makes Right" Says
Observer

AoAPo oNAA AhoiothIS
Might Makes Right" Says
Observer
BY Dapid Laurence
Idealism in international policy faces
some hard shedding in the next few
years. Already the argument OF the
ldeaiist for morality and sincerity in
international relations is being scoffed
at as Impractical" or as an insistence
on "perfectionism"
But the sad truth is that the youth
OF this and other countries are being
killed by the tens of thousands today
because the idealists of other years all
lowed the exponents of expediency.
compromise and rationalized selfishness
to f1nd excuse after excuse for inaction
as Hitler and the forces of dictatorship
gradually built up their military power
in Europe.
One OF the principal alibis or smoke
screens raised to confuse the facts of
history, for example, is the tendency of
the So-called practical men in interna-
tional affairs today to blame the war
on the alleged weaknesses Of the League
OF Nations. Another is to insist that
the acid test of co-operationist in in
ternational affairs is his willingness or
unwillingness to permit an American
delegate to commit the United States to
war overnight without the consent of
Congress.
The historical truth is that there is
ample time for an advance commit
ment because wars do not begin over
night. 1t was not in the sudden
bombardment at Warsaw in 1889 that
the European war really began, but in
the years leading up to such a climax.
Practical School
The present European war, for ex-
ample, had its greatest stimulus in 1896
when Hitler marched into the Rhine
land. France and Russia openly pro-
tested in that crisis but the practical"
men in Britain found a way to ration
allze the action as not being a violation
OF the provisions of the Versailles Treaty
and League Of Nations Covenant When
Mussolini attacked Ethiopia and when
Japan seized Manchuria, the practical"
school of thought found reasons of
expediency to justify inaction.
Now it has become fashionable in
official circles to claim that the princi-
pie OF a universal society of nations
failed and to offer two sets of regional
alliances in Europe as practical
substitute.
While talking to this correspondent
the other day, distinguished diplo-
mat from one of the smaller European
democracies, protesting against such
distortion of what happened in the sos,
said:
1T was not the League Of Nations
which failed but the members of the
League"
This is but another way Of saying
what Prime Minister Churchill wrote on
September 13 last in a message on the
occasion of the eightieth birthday of
Viscount Cecil:
This war could easily have been
prevented if the League of Nations had
been used with courage and loyalty to
the associated powers"
1t was not the wording of the clauses
in the League Covenant nor its par
ticular formula for world cooperation
which was tested in the 20 years before
1889 but the idealism and courage of
statesmen in Europe and America. 1t is
the unwillingness of public men to risk
their political lives in elections to sup
port causes that are manifestly un-
popular but yet of transcendent i'm
portance to mankind which usually
starts the cycle of expediency and COM
promise and ultimately plunges us all
into war
Familiar Process.
The familiar process has begun al
ready before our very eyes with respect
to the splendid set of principles re-
Gently adopted at the Dumbarton Oaks
conference. Already faith in the ca
pacity of universal society of nations
to preserve peace with military force
whenever necessary is being under
minded by sponsorship of two sets of
military alliances that are being offered
as supposedly within the framework of a
new League of Nations. This Is a
compromise with truth and an initial
surrender of conscience. Small govern
ments are already being told what kind
Of ministries they may have, and pup
pet" regimes are being accepted on the
basis OF rationaliZed legitimacy.
For the practical" side in Britain and
urging that American idealism must be
considered utopian or remote and that
a system wherein might makes right
can, after all, be benevolently admin
istered even as the world is boldly asked
to regard a universal society of equal
sovereign nations as too prefectionist
solution for the time being.
But somehow idealists have a way of
seeing through the transparent insincer-
ity of those in government here or
abroad who start arguing that morality
and right are too difficult to establish
In world of vice. And somehow the
boys who have risked or given every
thing that was precious to them-human
life with its careers and opportunity for
achfevement-nay some day serve as
reminders to the world that while ideal
ism is difficult to attain, it will never
be attained at all unless. at heavy cost
Of inconvenience to nations and indi-
viduals, a genuine start Is made on the
road to that selfsame goal of PERFECTION
ism.
Reproduction Rishts Reserved.)