Evening star., 1945-02-19
Crimeon Settlement
Requires Revision
Conference at San Francisco
Must Act, Writer Believes
By David Laurence


By David laurence
Is American public opinion tickle or
Is 1t that the people have short mem.
ories?
Five weeks ago-January 10, to be
exact Senator Vandenberg, Republican,
of Michigan, made speech decrying the
partition Of Poland as 1t had been pro-
posed by Prime Minister Churchill and
urging. instead. that Germany be de-
militarized by Britain. the United States
and Russia. thus making unnecessary
the buf1er-state security idea Of Moscow.
Republicans and Democrats in the
Senate applauded. The Nation ap-
plauded.
This last week 1t was announced that
President Roosevelt had agreed at the
Yalta conference in the Crimea to do
the exact opposite Of that which the
Michigan Senator had urged Again
the Nation, through the majority Of the
press, applauded.
Now to cap the climax President
Roosevelt has asked Senator Vanden-
berg to serve as member of the dele
CATION to the coming conference of the
United Nations at San Francisco, where
peace organization is to be set up,
presumably to underwrite the very kind
Of thing against which Mr.. vandenberg
inveighed in his speech.
Must Vanderberg Somersault?
Where does this leave the Michigan
Senator? Must he turn q somersault,
too, reversing himself within five weeks
and submitting himself to the rubber
stamp process Of approving something
which he already has disapproved?
Can Mr.. Vandenberg accept, unless
he is free to advocate at San Francisco.
the correction of the mistaken course
which was insisted on by Churchill and
Stain at Yalta?
After discussing the speech of Prime
Minister Churchill on December Is, last,
In which the Curzon Line settlement
was first revealed to have been made
secretly by the Prime Minister and
Marshal Stain, Senator vandenberg
told the Senate that the desire for .
buffer state by Russia was really based
on a fear of the resurgence OF German
aggression.
He argued that tripartite treaty
adopted now would overcome that dim
Guilty. Then, significantly urging q re-
vision of any interim agreements, he
added:
Il think we have the duty and the
right to demand that whatever imme-
diate unilateral decisions have to bs
made in consequence Of military need
and there will be such even in civil
affairs-they shall all be temporary and
subject to final revision In the objective
light of the postwar world and the post
war peace league"
Mr.. Vandenberg thereupon quoted
from President Roosevelts State of the
Union message earlier this year In
which he had said that during the in
terim period, until conditions permit q
genuine expression of the peoples will,
we and our Allies have a duty. which
We cannot ignore. to use our influence
to the end that no temporary or provi-
sional authorities in the liberated coun-
tries block the eventual exercise of the
peoples right to choose the government
and institutions under which, as free
men. they are to live zssE
Since the Atlantic Charter was sup
posedly reaf1rmed at Yalta, there can,
therefore, be no Anal settlement now OF
the Polish boundary question-eastern
or western by the Russian-created
Lublin government or by the exiled gov
ernment in London because the charter
specifically says there shall be mo terri
torial changes which do not accord with
the freely expressed wishes of the peo-
Piles concerned"
Revision Seen Necessary.
1t Is obvious from the foregoing that
the San Francisco conference must re-
wise the so-called settlement at Yalta II
the new charter of the United Nations
is to be ratified by the American Senate.
Otherwise, as Mr.. Vandenberg himself
said in his recent address, the American
people would be asked ito put q blank
check warrant behind future status
quo which is unknown to us and which
we might be unwilling to defend"
The Michigan Senator made two other
statements which it is not likely he will
| abandon He said:
I'VE are standing by our guns with
epic heroism. know of no reason why
We should not stand by our ideals !. i.
Il am not prepared to guarantee per-
manently the spoils OF an unjust peace.
It will not work"
The Polish settlement has already
been called the "Alsace-Lorraine of
World War III" 1t can breed dissension
and sow the seeds of another war not
just because Of the few miles of terri
tory involved but because of the lack of
principle in the whole procedure-the
high-handed method by which the ter
ritory was arbitrarily taken from an ally
in this war.
1t was to protect the territorial In
tegrity of Poland that Britain entered
the war in 1899 and it was the defense
Of Britain which ultimately involved
America. Wars grow out Of seemingly
unimportant bits Of territorial aggran-
dizement and the indifference of peo-
pies to issues, capable Of becoming
fostering sores.
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