Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1946-02-12
Senate Seen HOLDING
YoIto Trump Card
Has Precedent for Holding Up
Peace Treaty Ratification
By David Laurence

| BY David Laurence
Disclosure of the official text of a
| secret agreement reached at Yalta NAV
cause the United States Senate to stand
on its prerogatives.
Russia, it appears plainly now, condi-
| tloned her entry into the war against
Japan on the pledge of the heads of the
American and British Governments that
she would be awarded japanese territory
| in the Kuriles and the southern half of
Sakhalin Island.
President Roosevelt, according to his
address to Congress on March /, 1945,
after returning from Yalta, said he had
made 1t clear that ratification by the
Senate was an integral factor of any
agreement made by the United States.
He said, as reported in the Congress
sional Record:
las you know, have always been a
believer in the document called the
Constitution. spent good deal of time
in educating two other nations of the
world with regard to the Constitution of
the United States :"
"Other Arrangements"
In the prepared text of the same ad-
dress given out just before the delivery
OF the speech, Mr.. Roosevelt Is quoted
in the White House release as follows:
I am well aware of the constitutional
fact-as are all of the United Nations
that this charter must be approved by
tWo-thirds of the Senate of the United
States-as will some of the other ar
rangements made at Yalta."
When Mr. Roosevelt was reading his
speech he inadvertently omitted the
phrase 'as will some of the other ar
rangements made at Yalta." Questioned
later at press conference, he declined
to identify the "other arrangements"
which would have to be ratified by the
Senate.
Secretary Byrnes has recently stated
TO the press that, OF course, the Russian
claim to the Kuriles and the southern
half of Sakhalin would have to be rati-
fled by the United States Senate to be
valid and that it would be one of the
items in peace treaty some day to be
negotiated.
While the United States Government
is under no obligation to ratify an
agreement or treaty entered into by a
President, it has been argued by many
persons that reputation of the sigma
ture OF President Is in some respects
Immoral. This was the trend of much
OF the discussion when the Senate re-
fused to ratify the Versailles treaty of
peace in 1919. 1t is, of course, constitu-
tional right of the Senate to dissent
from ratifying treaty and this has
occurred many times under many ad-
ministrations.
There are many problems which have
arisen between the United States and
Russia. Various promises which were
made at Yalta with respect to freedom
OF elections, and also with respect to the
national governments to be established
in Balkan countries which were to be
free from Soviet control, have produced
serious controversies. There have been
some accusations that the Soviets have
not kept the agreements made at YaIta.
May HOLD trump card.
Under the circumstances, the United
States Senate could well reserve action
on President Roosevelt's pledge at Yalta
and determine for itself whether in all
other respects the Russians have full
filled the commitments made. 1t GER
tainly is as much the diplomatic privi-
lege Of the United States to withhold
assent until the nature of all items
involved in the pacification of Europe
and the Far East are decided on, as it
is for Russia to interpret international
agreements in her own way, as she has
done since Yalta.
II there is to be trading and bar
gaining, the United States Senate NAV
hold trump card in its postponement
OF action on the Roosevelt pledge 1t
could conceivably refuse to ratify such
claim in the event that in the next
five years the course of Russia is not
cooperative with respect to the prob
lens growing out of the Yalta agree
ment. Full information as to what is
happening in the countries indirectly
under Russian control has not been
made available so that American public
opinion is not yet accurately informed
as to what is going on in the areas
where the United States Is pledged to
use its armed forces If necessary to
support established governments.
Mr.. Roosevelt must have warned
Marshal Stain that the Senate would
have to be reckoned with in the rati-
fication process and Secretary Byrnes
now does not pretend for a moment
that the pact is an executive agree
ment but states unequivocally that
the Senate must ratify it. The fact
that the Senate has yet to ratify may
prove point of major Importance in
the developments of the next several
years in our relations with Russia. If
the cards were reversed, Russia would
not hesitate to use the incident for all
the leverage and bargaining power
that 1t could command.
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