The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1945-03-29
TODAY and TOMORROW
By WALTER LIPPMANN

conferences OF last summer, u
more serious and efficient effort
had been made to settle the chief
points of disagreement before the
San Francisco meeting. There
were two Dumbarton Oaks con-
ferences last summer, the first by
the Soviet Union, Britain and the
United States, and the second, i'm
mediately thereafter, by China,
Britain and the United States.
Then the conferences stopped.
They should have gone on. There
should have been another Dunn.
barton Oaks conference as soon as
possible after the recognition OF
the French Provisional Govern
ment. There should have been am
other Dumbarton Oaks conference
with the extremely important So
called "'middle powers" Canada,
the Netherlands, Belgium, Brazil
and Mexico. But, as it turned out,
all the issues that these Dunbar
ton Oaks conferences could have
resolved carefully and deliberate
ly are to be dumped into the hurly-
burly of the San Francisco meet
ing.
All who have had experience
with international conferences have
learned that the first rule for sue
cess is to have substantial agree
ment in advance on all questions
of vital interests and high prin-
ciple. The promoters and manag-
ers OF the San Francisco meeting
have not observed this rule. and
it is, therefore, of the highest i'm
portance that we prepare our
selves to deal with the risks this
imposes upon us.
There is the risk of intermina-
BILE debate which, because the
lime-ligh1 will be on the confer
ence, might become irreconcilable
once a delegation had committed
itself publicly and was unable
without loss of face to retreat.
There is the countervailing risk
that the great powers impatient
with too long debate, will cut
it short and railroad decisions
which will leave governments and
people resentful that they have
been denied an adequate hearing.
There is the overall risk that
statesmen will be SO preoccupied
with the immediate issues at the
end of the war, that the best wis
dom OF the best minds will SIM
ply not be applied to the charter.
No doubt it is too late to hold
the other Dumbarton Oaks con-
ferences that should have been
held, though much could and
should still be done through dip
lomatic channels before the meet
ing. No doubt it is too late to
repair the mistake of judgment
in not placing the conference in
a capital city where there exist
facilities of international inter-
course that cannot possibly be
transplanted to the San Francisco
hotels.
But it is not too late to consid-
er earnestly whether there cannot
be devised a safety valve or an
escape clause against the conse-
quences of having to do too big
a job too quickly at the wrong
place under very difficult condi-
tons at supreme juncture in hui
man affairs. The risks might be
minimized either by general
provision that the charter IL to be
provisional for say ten years and
then is to be revised, or perhaps
better still by setting up the or
ganization as outlined at Dunbar
ton Oaks. and then giving it au-
thority to do at leisure and de-
iberately what the San Francisco
conference is supposed to do
namely to perfect the provisional
charter and the provisional organ
ization.
For in one way or another we
shall have to guard against the
notion that San Francisco can pro-
duce, or should be expected to
produce, a conclusive and perfect
ed constitution for the world of
the future.
Copyright, 1915, New York Tri-
une Inc.
DIVORCE GRANTED
nNYNnNr no INN