Evening star., 1946-12-24
Mr.. Bevin's S Report

British people. Foreign Minister
Bevin asked simple question that
answers itself: If the Big Five, helped
by the smaller powers, manage to
live in concord and harmony" how
can war be possible at all?
The answer, of course, is obvious.
Given the concord and harmony"
the peace will be genuinely lasting
one. Nor is Mr.. Bevin depressed by
the bigness of the "if" that this in
wolves. On the contrary, he has
returned to London feeling consid-
erably optimistic over the results
achieved in New York by the recent
sessions of the Foreign Ministers
and the United Nations General As
sembly. He believes that the Big
Five. with patience. will gradually
be able to reconcile all their basic
differences and build, in concert with
the other powers. truly co-opera-
tive and warless world.
AS Mr.. Bevin sees 1t, such world
would make possible the attainment
of these three great ends: First,
elimination of the need of national
ornaments; second, the universal
use of atomic energy and other
scientific wonders for beneficent
purposes only, and third, availability
to all countries of the earth's natural
resources. It is with these long term
objectives in mind, according to Mr..
Bevin, that Britain is carrying out
it's foreign policy. Despite criticism
to the contrary by "rebel" leftist
members of his own Labor Party,
he fatty denies that the policy is
anti-Russian or that it follows the
American lead. Britain, he insists,
is approaching every international
problem on its own merits in a dis
tinctively British way, and it is hold
ing out the hand of friendship and
cooperation to all. its fundamental
aim being to make a success of the
United Nations lest the world be
split perilously into opposing blocs.
To this extent, 1t may be said that
Britain's policy is identical with ours.
But Mr.. Bevin makes clear that his
government is looking at the world
primarily through British eyes. It
has its own unique position within
the framework of the United Nations
and within the more limited frame
work of the Big Five and Big Three
China must achieve internal peace
and unity in order to realize its i'm
mense potentialities. France has the
problem of recovering, from the
shock Of 1910 and placing itself on
an even political keel. AS for the
rest of the Big Five, Mr.. Bevin recog-
nizes that the war has left free
enterprise America and totalitarian
Russia as the two great preponder-
ant powers. Between them Britain
lies midway in geography and way
of life" and with China and France
but with more strength and sta
bility than either-it can contribute
much toward the reconcilia ton of
all outstanding differences.
In this respect, Mr.. Bevin enter
tains high hopes. He believes that
New York sessions of the Assembly
and the Council Of Foreign Ministers
laid the essential groundwork for
real concord and harmony" among
the great powers. In his judgment,
as long as the different nations con-
cerned recognize the right of each
to its own way of life, the concord
and harmony" should grow progress
sively toward the kind of warless
world he emissions. The next test
will come at the Moscow Conference
in March when an effort will be
made to write the crucial Austrian
and German treaties.