Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1945-06-01
WNU Service, Union Trust Building,
Washington, D. C.

Washington, D. C.
SAN FRANCISCO. - California
sunshine is pouring down on the bay,
great white fog has begun to drape
the distant, gray-green hills in the
folds of its floating robe.
1t has been a day of conferences
and interviews where the great
tragedies of little countries-Al-
bania, Korea, Poland-and the little
differences between great countries
have been tossed at us, in vibrant
earnest voices, in stiff and proper ac-
cents. 1t would be easy to lose sight
of woods for the trees. But as I sit
here leafing over faded notes of an
other such conference, know that
the tremendous goal for which these
delegates have Striven is so much
higher, so much wider than all the
little controversies that it still is just
what the chambermaid in my no.
tel said it was.
She was gray haired. She had a
son on Saipan, she told me, and
when I asked her what she thought
of this gathering she laid down an
armful of linen and looked up. IT
guess this is just about the most i'm
portant thing that ever happened"
she said, trying to stop wars"
How important this meeting will
prove to be depends on how well the
world avoids the pitfalls which
wrecked its last attempt to treat
war as we treat disease; not as
something that we irreverently con-
slider as an act of God, like tor
nado, but something to which man.
kind is exposed through ignorance
and Indifference and which can be
prevented.
Why did the League of Nations
fail? What are the pitfalls which
the United Nations must avoid?
Germans Thought
Armies Unbeaten
I have been talking over that
Paris conference with a friend
whom I met there-a quarter of a
century ago. He lived with the
League of Nations through its early
uncertain days, on until its death of
malnutrition. Together we agreed
on certain fundamental mistakes
made in the past which must be
avoided if the result of the San
Francisco conference is a success.
The object of the United Nations
is the same as the object of the
League of Nations: to stop agrees
sion before it starts. Last time, eff
forts were directed specifically to-
ward Germany as the one potential
aggressor. Germany has been so
utterly defeated that she cannot
strike back for long time but our
conduct toward Germany after the
last war can be related to all fu-
ture attempts at aggression.
The first mistake made last time,
namely, allowing the myth to grow
up that the German army was not
defeated, that other causes enforced
capitulation, cannot be made again
since the German army is now de-
stroyed. But there is danger that
another myth may grow which will
encourage nazi-fascism elsewhere.
Even if the so-called German gov
eminent headed by Admiral Doenitz
formally capitulated to the Allies in
stead of having the various gener-
ais surrender separately, the Nazis
might well claim that they them
selves never did surrender.
A very good legal case might be
made out supporting the thesis that
Doenitz was not the authorized head
of the German government and that
government still existed in exile.
Whether Hitler and Himmler are
dead makes no difference. No proof
can be adduced that Doenitz is the
authorized successor to Hitler. There
has been no recognized revolution
which could be recognized first, de
facto. then de jure.
We do not know that Hitler author
lied Doenitz as his successor.
We do know that he had publicly
indicated certain successors.
I saw and heard him do it in
the Reichstag meeting in the Knoll
opera house in Berlin on September
l, 1889, when he announced that he
was going to the front to join the
army already invading Poland.
Saw MIN TURN from tne leCtern
and indicate. first Herman Goering,
sitting high on the praesidium as
his successor, if he failed to return
and second, the tall and lanky Hess
sitting in the first row on the ros-
trum.
There has never been any other
official designation of succession by
the German government When Hit
Ter made that pronouncement Doe