Evening star., 1944-12-31
Senate Suspicious Aroused
By Trend to Power Politics
Fears Establishment of Democratic and Lasting
Peace Is Jeopardized as Was Versailles
Treaty bv Secret Diplomacy
By Joseph II. Baird

BY JOSeb
Highly placed officials in the Govern
ment are wondering today whether the
resurgence of European power politics"
which characterized the end of the
World War again may menace the estab-
lishment of a democratic and lasting
peace.
The issue has been high Lighted by
demands in the Senate for President
Roosevelt to redef1ne American foreign
policy, which, in recent press confer
ence he declined to do, explaining that
his international doctrines already were
on record. Presumably he referred to
the Atlantic Charter and the various
speeches he has made, as we'll as his
sponsorship of the Dumbarton Oaks
conference and a permanent United
Nations organization.
Yet 1t Is increasingly apparent that
the Senate, which acts as a weather.
vane for American public reaction, is
not satisfied. That was indicated in the
Senate opposition to Mr. RooSevelt's
nomination of Joseph C. Grew as Un-
dersecretary and five new Assistant
Secretaries of State. Ordinarily these
nominations would have gone through
as matter of routine following their
Endorsement by the Senate Foreign Re-
lations Committee. But the fact that
Senators Guffey, Democrat, of Pennsyl-
vania and Pepper, Democrat, of Florida,
both of whom have close connections
with the CIO-PAC, found it expedient
to oppose them. shows the development
of newly critical and suspicious atti-
tude toward our foreign relations
Basis of Suspicion.
The explanation of that suspicion,
whether well founded or not, can be
found in recent diplomatic develop
ments in Europe.
The American people, as the late
Frank M. Simonds often pointed out,
have peculiar complex. On the one
hand, they are deep-rooted isolationists,
in that they want no part in the family
quarrels which have characterized Eu-
ropean history for the last 1000 years.
On the other hand, they have mis-
sionary spirit" which impels them to
carry American ideals to the rest of the
world.
The latter phase of American char
acter was exemplifed in public reaction
to the statement by President Roose-
velt and Prime Minister Churchill of
what has come to be konwn as the
Atlantic Charter. They were impressed
particularly with sections and 3, which
read:
They Ohe President and Prime
MinisteD desire to see no territorial
changes that do not accord with the
freely expressed wishes of the peoples
concerned.
Third, they respect the right of all
peoples to choose the form of govern
ment under which they will live; and
they wish to see sovereign rights and
self-government restored to those who
have been forcibly deprived of them"
Opposed to Power Politics.
1t may well be that the idealistic SEN
timents expressed by the Anglo-Ameri-
can leaders are disconsonant with the
times, But, nevertheless, the American
people placed their faith in them, and
having done so, there are indications
that they are reacting violently against
the resurgence of power politics.
1t is evident from developments of the
last few months that both Russia and
Great Britain have carved out what
they consider their spheres of influ-
ence" in Europe. Prime Minister
Churchills recent speeches have made
1t evident that London considers it nec-
essary to dominate Italy and Greece.
The reasons for British policy are quite
apparent. Unless Britain controls the
Mediterranean, its lifeline" to both the
Near East and India will be cut and
the empire" will pass into history.
Premier Stain, having an Oriental
mind, pursues a more devious policy.
BY means of controlled elections, the
Baltic states have been incorporated as
Soviet republics" There is every indi-
cation that the so-called "Lublin Com
miteet' will be the nucleous of a Polish
government which eventually will form
part of the Soviet Union.
Wanted Strong Poland.
In an address before the Moscow
Soviet last November Premier Stain
said that Red Army and Allied troops
would free Poland, along with other
German occupied countries, and give
the Poles freedom to decide for them
selves their own future" Earlier he
had told former Premier Stanislaw
Mlkolajczyk that it was his desire to
see strong unified postwar Poland.
Stain, according to his own defini-
tions, probably spoke the truth. There
is no doubt in the minds of Washington
officials that he would like to see q
strong Polish state established as
buffer between Russia and Germany.
But when Stain speaks of Poland" he
obviously does not mean the Poland of
1899, whose territory extended to within
35 miles of Minsk He means the Poland
OF 1919, or its rough equivalent, which
was established by the Versailles con-
terence with its eastern boundary along
the Curzon Line, some 100 miles west
OF the prewar border.
The present military diplomatic sit
uatlon inevitably recalls the acrimonious
Senate debate over the League of Ma
lions and the Versailles Treaty. Presi-
dent Wilson's idealistic IA points"
caught the imagination of the world
and particularly that of thte American
people.
There must be-" he told the Senate
early in 1917, mot balance of power
but community of power; not Or