The Wilmington morning star., 1945-02-22
In The Nation
BY ARTHUR KROCK
In The New York Times

correspondent only in the dials OF the radlo
mr. in the columns of late-arriving newspapers.
| Tn some ways almost as distant as the sun
that each day wheels its bright course across
Winvah Bay the Allied world has assumed
a different perspective
With the advantages of segregation ana lei
sure the writer has availed himself OF oppor-
tunities for deliberate reflection denied to
those who must report or comment With the
current But when the opportunities were con-
sumed to their fullest, there seemed 10 MIN
that nothing important remained unwrltten
with respect to the great events, Tor DIS
tant radio listener and reader OF tWo-oay-olo
issues of The New York Times to supply.
Possibly that is because the statements IN
the Crimean communique contained no sur
prises and because the commitments made
therein were either foregone conclusions or
belated acceptances of suggestions which were
obviously necessary when first oHered. An
example of the unsurprising statements was
that the executive branch of the United States
Government through the President, accepts
the Curzon Line in substance as Poland's rea-
sonabe eastern boundary. An example OF be-
lated commitments that were obviously nee
essary when made was arrangement Wnere-
by the Allied Foreign Ministers are to meet
three times year to coordinate the olplo-
matte and political fronts of the war.
A Typical Gesture
the House of Commons, supported Soviet Rus
sia's claims east of the Curzon Line, and said
that the approval of Great Britain and Russia
was well understood at Teheran by Mr.. Roose-
welt, it did not seem that more need be
produced to forecast these things: Cd The
United States would go along on the Polish
boundary issue, particularly if the Russian
| armies and not ours drove the Germans out
| of Poland; and CD the United States would
seek some formula with which it would hope
| to mollify the die-hard Polish exile Govern
ment in London. Washington observers, whose
personal study of Mr.. Roosevelt has endured
since he first assumed the Presidency, were
| in little doubt that these would be the even
tual decisions, as they were
| The agreement that the Allied Foreign Min
sters shall meet three times a year could
also have been guessed by students of the
Presidents courses. He is by nature unrecep-
| tive OF ideas, however sound, which originate
outside his own circle and this was mod-
fcation of one SUCH What had also been
urged upon the President was to set up a
diplomatic group, on a level with the Anglo
American military group which is known as
the Combined Chiefs of Staff, the former to
coordinate the diplomatic political war fronts
daily as the Combined Chiefs do the military
fronts. For some unknown reason, Mr.. Roose-
welt deeply resented this proposal, although
it was made by some of his wisest and most
highly placed advisers.
| Whatever were his reasons for disliking the
broader proposal, at Yalta he came eventu-
ally to the substance of it. There will be no
daily working group Of foreign under-secre-
| taries, to try to prevent the great Allies from
embarkng on opposite diplomatic courses by
resolving differences at the outset. But there
will be regular meetings of their chiefs. And
since the under-secretaries must be busy ev-
cry day to prepare their superiors for the
overall conferences, and since good prepare
| ton will prevent interim differences from
growing too wide, the effect is pretty much
as If the President had agreed as a whole to
the proposal that so nexplicably aroused his
| anger when it first saw the light.
The Choice of Stassen y
These are among the reflections that come
in the quiet of the Carolina Low Country,
among the lve-oak and the cypress, the 81
lence OF pine-wood trails on which the horse
hoofs strike as lightly as the impact of the
active world. They are not important, or new,
or especially discerning, and so they fade
across the waters of Winyah Fay and vanish
IN the misty groves on South Island that stand
between the bay and the sea. But one remains
and, when it dissolves in the soft airs of
HobcaW Plantation, it re-materalizes. This
reflection takes the form of two words: Why
Stassen?"
Certain ready explanations arise to answer
the question which the radio and newspapers
|
chose Lieut.. Comdr Harold E. Stassen to
serve as member of the United States dele
CATION at San Francisco? It is AWKWARD be-
ing plenary, duty for the subordinate of Navy
this subordinate once Governor of Min
nesota and an outstanding and brave inter-
captains and admrals, despite the fact that
national thinker. The selection passes over the
only living ex-President, also member of
the Republican party, and that partys Pres.
dental candidates of 1886 and 1944-the lat
ter its titular leader.
But Lieutenant Commander Stassen gave to
the Senate Mr.. Ball, who left his party in
1914 to support the President for fourth
term. And Lieutenant Commander Stassen, De-
ing on military service, perforce has not late
ly criticized Mr.. Roosevelt's Administration
Such Republican, if power changes over in
l94S, is a more acceptable prospect to Chief
Executive who resents opposition
l want to implore you now, my comrades,
to cease these unholy doings, this murder. Put
your weapons away, come over to us, here
because it is senseless to continue fighting -
Captured soldier-priest appealing across front
Hines to German soldiers.