St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1945-06-08
MOrdecai Johnson
Disappointed By
j. S. Leadership

-Greivous disappointment with the
moral caliber of the leadership of
the official American delegation at
the United Nations conference in
San Francisco was expressed in a
press conference last week by DR..
Mordecai Johnson, president of
Howard University. He praised the
attitude of Russia and the unity of
Negro representatives at the Con-
ference. DR.. Johnson was an OBJ
server at the conference for several
weeks, representing the Fraternal
Council of Negro Churches of
America.
"The attitude of the American
and British bloc of delegates to-
ward Russia" he said, "was SO per-
sistently unfavorable that many
delegates and substantial portion
of the press began to fear Russia
might leave the conference"
DR.. johnson said that in his opin-
ion, the most important single thing
in the world today is that there
should be constructive understand
ing between the United States and
Russia. He said that for the first
time in modern history, the two
most important nations in the
world are not the old countries, but
countries with ample territory and
resources who are in position to
bring peace to the world without
the urge for aggression.
He lauded the position taken by
Russia and China on the matter of
dependent areas and colonies. On
these questions, he said, the United
States delegation was gravely dis
appointing.
"The proposition our delegates
brought into the conference on
these questions were so dominated
with the inflexible purposes of the
Army and Navy to keep and control
certain territories taken from
Japan that we placed ourselves in
a position to be outflanked by Rus
STA, and we were," he declared.
Russia took the leadership away
from u.s." he added. eve found our
selves in the most dangerous posi-
ton possible, lined up with Britain,
France, Holland and Belgium de-
Tending imperialism, with Russia
and China, representing the East,
squarely on the other side" He
said it had been his hope that the
United States would have taken the
position of leadership which Russia
took on these questions in cham
pioning the welfare of peoples in
stead of control of areas.
DR.. johnson expressed the opin-
ion and hope that the President of
the United States sees the fallacy
in the position the American dele
cation took on dependent areas and
"trusteeships," and against Russia.
He pointed to the recent appoint
ments by the President of Harry
Hopkins to go to Russia and former
Ambassador Davies to go to Eng
land as hopeful signs that Pres.
Truman perhaps sees we have gone
too far down the line against Rus
STA and has taken steps to correct
it.
Despite these problems, he said,
he thought the conference would
succeed, but only because of the
good will of Russia and her deter
mination not to be driven out of
the meeting and not to abandon her
purpose of championing the rights
of individuals without regard to
race, religion, color or sex.
On the question of the veto pow
er of the big 5, DR.. johnson said
he believed Russia was insisting on
this because she was not yet conf
dent of the good will of the other
nations. She is conscious of the pos
sibility of a bloc somewhere down
the road ganging up against her.
She feels the big powers should act
as a unit on all matters having to
do with settlement of disputes and
the use of armed forces.
While the veto power could be
used to paralyze the activity of
the world organization, he said, it
must be realized that the response
bility for the peace of the world