Dirva = Field. [volume] (Cleveland, Ohio) 1915-current, 1946-12-27
Displaced Persons


Sen. Wherry of Nebraska has de.
scrlbed the problem of the displac.
ed persons in Europe as "the fore
most question" confronting the new
congress. In a real sense this is
true, even tho the number of dis.
placed persons is estimated at nc
more than half a million. Thei,
suffering is small in relation to the
whole mass of misery on the CON
tlnent; the displaced persons con.
stltute only few hundreds of thou
sands among many millions of mis-
cradle people and their lot, at least
for the time being, is often better
than that of their fellow men out
side the D. P. camps.
The costs Of caring for the dis.
placed persons is large. Mr.. Wher-
ry estimates that this winter, alone
the American taxpayers will be
called upon to contribute something
like $20O,O00,000 for this purpose.
in addition to the sums collected
here by various charitable organi-
cations. This is a lot of money,
but it is not the high cost Of deal
ing with it that gives this problem
its unique Importance.
Mr.. Wherry is one of the few
members of congress to realize that
the displaced person is the perfect
symbol of the kind of world which
was created at the secret conferences
at Tehran, Yalta, and Potsdam. Ex-
cept for these monstrous perversions
of craftsmanship the problem would
not exist.
Mr.. Roosevelt is the worst often
der because, with all the cards in
mis- hand, he could have prevented
the insane scrambling of popula-
tions, the enslavement of nations,
and the universal poverty that Sta
lin desired. The Russians and the
English needed our help and could
have been forced to behave humane
ly and reasonably if Mr.. Roosevelt
had come forward with a program
that was humane and livable Mr..
Roosevelt had no program except a
determination to yield to the wishes
of his allies.
The result is now apparent-epi-
tomized in the d. P. camps. They
contain a majority of Ukrainians,
Poles, White Russians, Yugoslavs,
and people of the Baltic countries
who will rather die than return to
the territories now under the COM
munist terror.
All of this and much more can be
traced directly TO decisions reach
ed at the secret conferences. There
is no peace in Europe ard there
can be no peace or reconstruction
until the secret agreements are all
discarded as both cruel and I'M
workable.
Obviously, relief is merely stop
gap which leaves the problem un-
touched. Congress, as Sen. Wherry
says, will be called upon to appro
pirate relief funds. Either in the
same bill or in an accompanying
resolution there must be a declara-
ton by congress that this govern
ment is not bound by any agree
ments reached at any Of the sec
ret conferences.
Such a resolution of course, will
be sound constitutionally. This gov.
ernment cannot be bound by any
engagements W h ic h
have not been formulated in treaties
and approved by constitutional
majority in the senate. Every re-
sponsible official in every foreign
government knows that. The deals
n question. unfortunately, are re-
rarded as sacred commitments by
he men now running our state de-
oartment who had a hand in max
no them. 1t is our own officials,
above all, who must be told author
tatively by congress that this coun-
nv was not committed to anything
W Mr.. Roosevelt or Mr.. Truman
It the meetings in question.
That will not of itself achieve