Evening star., 1945-06-10
The Making Of Peace
Has Never Been Easy
AS After Past Wars, Clashes Are
Almost Inevitable Now
BIZ William, H. Harrison.

falliCo ildFC clllUdI hcu upOIl Gile CaSk OF
establishing peace in Europe may seem
altogether dismaying, but actually it
should occasion no very great surprise,
nor should it be allowed to serve as
shield and sword for those cynics and
defeatists who have appointed them
selves to do battle against every inter-
national effort to build better world
such distressing developments as diff
ferences between Russia and the West
ern Allies over Poland difficulties with
Titos Yugoslavs in Trieste, and the
ugly French-Syrian clash are to be
expected-at least to the extent that
after every great armed conflict there
comes a period of tension and dis
pute among the victors. This is the
period when nations, no longer feeling
an intense compulsion to unite against
common physical danger, tend to be
separated by the political, economic and
cultural variations existing among them.
The shooting over, the common danger
removed, they then become more than
prone to promote their old individual
interests, and collisions of one sort or
another-some to the point of force
are almost inevitable in the process.
There Is an abundance of historical
parallels for the present situation. Thus,
for example, in 1915, after the downfall
of Napoleon, the victorious powers of
Austria, Prussia, Russia and Britain
passed through a series of grave crises
in their relations before they finally
succeeded in hammering out a peace
that endured, apart from limited con-
fiicts, for 100 years. Thus, too, after the
defeat of the Kaiser's armies in 1918,
the vlctors were so at odds with each
other that the observation-disclosures, Carl
ton j. H. Hayes, has written that only
the WEAKNESS of the European peoples
and strong pressure exercised by Britain,
France and America prevented some
OF the Allied states from engaging IN
open war with each other, and evea
then there were hostile clashes in Gen.
trail Europe between Poles and Czecho-
slovaks, between Poles and Ukrainians,
between Rumanians and Yugoslavs, and
between Yugoslavs and Italians"-not
to mention insurrection in Egypt, dan
nunzio's seizure of Fiume, the British
Irish troubles, and similar disheartening
developments.
In the light of the past. therefore.
there should be no shocked amazement
now over the difficulties being encount-
cred in Europe. When a great war ends.
peace, fullbloWn and beautiful. does not
Immediately follow. 1t has to be made:
1t has to be worked at: it has to be
"Waged" over a period of months and
years. The transition from a long
period Of killing and destroying on
vast scale to period of reconstruction.
order, security and good will has never
been easy in other times, and least of
all will it be easy in this age of un-
precedented upheaval and fernent.
AT this point in history, when there
are all too many apostles of despair
beating the drums of disillusionment,
certain basic facts are worth bearing in
mind as anchors for patience, forbear-
ance and proper sense of perspective.
The first of these is that the world ex-
isting before the war-a world which
the Pope in 1886 described as upside
down and sick with a grave illness
mas been wrenched apart and will
never be the same again. When men
look to Europe today-and Europe is
but part OF the whole problem-they
delude themselves If they think that ad-
Justments to this tremendous change
can be readily made and that a new
system of order and security can be
built with relative ease.
europe is crowded continent. It's
area, exclusive of Russia, is less than
that of the United States, but its popu-
lation of over 100000 900 is more than
three times as great. 1t is a place full
OF historical animosities, religious and
cultural differences. deep-rooted ma
tlonal1stlc impulses and a wide variety
OF racial strains. Since 1889 it has been
the center of a war in which, wholly
apart from civilian casualties, the op-
posing armies, navies and air forces
have lost, according to official Ameri-
can estimates, 100000 men killed in
action or dead from other causes and
more than 35,00000O wounded, with
seventh of these permanently disabled.
It has suffered enormous physical
destruction. Its transportation and
productive plants have been largely
wrecked. Vast sections of its housing
have been wiped away It's food re-
sources in many areas are at the star
vatlon level, and wandering aimlessly
along its roads and through its shat
tered cities are millions of the dispos-
sessed and uprooted Economically out
OF joint, politically sitting on a powder
keg, its centuries-old power structure
fallen to pieces, with only vacuum in
the west to counterbalance the east,
Europe is a fever-ridden region of
Snort tempers and much hate, where the
problems of peace, including at least 80
territorial questions. impose upon the
victors burden whose complexity and
magnitude can scarcely be exaggerated.
This is the picture to be kept in mind
when the cynics seize upon incidents of
inter-Allied pickering and use them to
discredit the whole idea of international
collaboration. 1t is the picture to be
kept in mind when the perfectionists
and defeatists wall that everything now
being done is being done in vain be-
cause it is being done short of the
ideal. This is the picture that helps
explain why stumbling and some meas
ure of acrimony are virtually inescapa-
ble the more so because the ma ior mart
of the peace-making task falls to three
powers who are war-fatigued and Who
Communist Russia on one hand and