Evening star., 1945-03-24
Condor Advocated
On Overseas Needs
Writer Expects Nation to Face
Loss of Many Necessities
By David Laurence

By Dauid Lawvence
Altruism and generosity will have to
be accentuated to the maximum IN
the next couple years by the American
people.
Again and again in the next "a
months or more the United States will
have to deprive itself of commodities
as well as food products in order to help
the peoples of other lands
The job of selling such program to
the American Nation will require the
utmost in tact and candor. For not
only will the United States have to give
up some of the luxuries but many OF
the necessities.
1t will, therefore, become more than
ever desirable for the persons who ex-
ercise authority in the name of the,
United States Government to avoid ex-
cesses or abuses or mistakes. For, how
ever well-intentioned officials sometimes
may be, they do yield to high-pressure
pleas or demands from abroad that are
not pared to the bone of reality.
1t would be unfortunate If any eco
oped in connection with requests for
aid from foreign countries, and it will
be difficult to detect such attitudes
unless the facts are constantly made
available
If the American people, for instance,
are to be asked to tighten their belts
so that human beings in Europe
WI hot ho he
children of defeated or Allied or hber-
ated countries-will not starve, it will
be essential that the passions of re-
Venge be not permitted to becloud the
sense of humanity which must prevail.
Cost May Be Higher
For, in the long run, unless stable
economic conditions are created in
Europe, there will be perennial revolu-
ton and warfare and in the end the
American people will have to pay a
higher cost in armament or in the
maintenance of policing armies.
From time to time there has been a
good deal of sniping at the humani-
tartan tradition of the United States SIS
the suckers" role, This sort of thing
will tend to increase and the only way
TO reduce such criticism is to be sure
that the facts about our good neigh
bor' policies or our ehabilitation work
abroad are at all times open to inspec-
ton by the Congress and the press.
Too often fear that criticism might
arise causes unnecessary secrecy and
in the end brings more criticism than
would have been the case had full pub
licity been given from the outset.
Food and money as well as raw ma
terials and machinery will have to be
exported in even larger quantities after
than at present. This is because the
entire economic structure of Europe
will be in chaos and the accustomed
work in the factories and the fields will
be seriously interrupted. To rehabii-
tate Europe will require food for all
manner of homeless persons.
Millions Enslaved.
Indeed, inside Germany will be found
millions of nationals from France and
other liberated countries who have been
enslaved by the Nazis and who will be
marooned in Germany when the Nazis
are crushed Such countries as Nor
way, France, Italy, Holland and Bel
GUM, as well as Poland and the Balkan
states, will need reconstruction on a
vast scale.
1t will be easy enough for selfishness
to crop out and for unthinking observ-
ers to say that the victors come first
or that one nation should be preferred
over another. The job is to get enough
food for survival into all countries, be-
cause already it is being predicted that
next winter the famine in Europe will
be devastating. 1t will be important,
too. to get economic systems started so
employment can begin and farmers re-
stored to the land so they can resume
planting. 1t is a colossal job in re-
habilitation. and it would be sad, in
deed, if the American people stood by
and allowed passing irritations to in
terfere with the flow of the bare neces-
sites of life to the peoples overseas.
Reproduction Rights Reservedl