Evening star., 1946-08-11
Public Opinion May Play
Rightful Role in Peace
Secretary Byrnes Is Leading Successful Fight to
Bring Good Will of People to Bear on
Paris Conference Discussions
By GarneH D. Horner


Public opinion now is getting the big
gest chance it ever had to play its right
full potent role in world affairs.
Secretary of State Byrnes is counting
heavily upon this force, long neglected,
nistrusted and misused by world states
men, to help bring about an understand
ing with Russia and achieve just and
enduring peace.
This is why, in sharp contrast to the
1919 Peace Conference, he insisted that
all proceedings of the Peace Conference
now going on in Paris be open to news
paper and radio reporters who are keep
ing the whole world informed of what
happens day-by-day.
For public opinion to be effective, 1t
must be we'll informed People every
where must know the facts on which
to base intelligent opinions about the
problems their statesmen are trying to
solve. Though much remains to be done
to break down iron curtains" and
achieve the free flow of information
that is SO essential to international un-
derstanding, such things as the open
debates at Paris mark considerable prog
ress toward that goal.
Affected 1919 Peace.
This progress is one of the too few
hopeful signs on the road to real peace.
President Wilson failed to achieve his
objective of "open covenants openly ar
rived at after the First World War,
and some of his advisers at that time
saw this as one of the reasons for fail
ure of the 1919 peace arrangements in
which they recognized the seeds of
future wars.
Secret diplomacy marked the 1919
Peace Conference, with major decisions
negotiated privately by the big Five"
of that day and dictated to the con-
ference, without such an opportunity
for pressure of public opinion to be
brought to bear as prevails now.
The late Robert Lansing, President
Wilson's Secretary of State, lamented
the failure of these secret tactics in
memoranda published many years later
by the State Experimentation which
Secretary Byrnes may well have learned
valuable lessons.
II am convinced that the method of
personal interviews and private con-
claves is a failure, Mr., Lansing wrote
midway of the 1919 conference that pro-
duced peace settlement which he fore
saw will not bring permanent peace
because it is founded on the shifting
sands Of self-interest'
Everywhere" Mr.. Lansing continued,
there are developing bitterness and
resentment against secretiveness
which Is interpreted to mean failure
The patience of the people is worn
threadbare. . = They are sick of whis-
pering diplomats.
'Muttered condolences, secret in
trigues and the tactics of the gum
shoer' are discredited The world wants
none of them these days. 1t despises
and loathes them. What the world
asks are honest declarations openly pro-
claimed.
Secret diplomacy, the bane of the
past, is a menace from which man be-
lieved himself to be rid. He who resur-
rects 1t invites condemnation"
His views were shared by William c.
Bullitt, then a young assistant on the
American Peace Conference delegation
who later served under the late Presi-
dent Roosevelt as Ambassador to Russia
and to France.
Mr.. Bullitt resigned from the delega-
ton on May II, 1919 because he was
convinced that unjust decisions" Aade
new international conflicts certain"
and wrote directly to President Wilson:
That you personally opposed most of
the unjust settlements, and that you
accepted them only under great pressure,
is well known. Nevertheless, it is my
conviction that if you had made your
fight in the open, instead of behind
closed doors, you would have carried
with you the public opinion of the
world I. ..
Il am sorry that you did not fight
our fight to the finish and that you had
so little faith in the millions of men,
like myself. in every nation who had
faith in you
Mr.. Byrnes has been much more sue
cessful in his efforts to keep the pres
ent fight for just peace out in the
open, but has faced numerous diff
culties. Among them is the inheritance
of the supersecret diplomacy of the
war years, when the late President
Roosevelt, Soviet Premier Stain and
former British Prime Minister Churchill
made some secret commitments carrying
into the postwar period. Aside from the
hand-tying aspect OF some of these
pledges, they set something of prece-
dent for Big Three private deals which
it was not easy to break.
Russian secretiveness prevented even
my informative formal communicates
1oming out of the first session of the
2ig-poWer Council of Foreign Ministers
n London last September, and none
If these meetings has been open to
the press. But at the more recent
council sessions leading up TO the 81
nation peace conference, Mr.. Byrnes
managed to arrange for members of
his staff to keep press and radio cor
respondents-and through them the
world-informed of most developments
as they occurred. Then, after each of
the council meetings over the past sew
eral months, he made frank personal
report to the Nation by radio on his
return to the United States.
Compromise Achieved.
He fought hard against Russian in
sistence that the Big Four dictate the
peace terms. He got compromise that
was far short of his objective, but it did
provide for full and free discussion in