Evening star., 1946-07-14
Progress Toward Peace

Progress Toward Peace
With the adjournment of the
Council of Foreign Ministers at
Paris, it is difficult to be particularly
enthusiastic over what has been
accomplished, but certainly some
progress has been made, however
haltingly, in the complex and highly
contentious effort to establish peace
in Europe.
AS far as Austria and Germany are
concerned, the Council achieved
nothing. Mr.. Molotov blocked pro-
posal by Mr.. Byrnes to begin work
on an Austrian treaty, and he was
similarly hostile to moves calculated
to bring about a common Allied Ger
man policy at this time. But, though
the Big Four thus could not agree
on these two most important prob
lens, they did manage to come to-
gether on treaties for Italy, Hungary,
Romania, Bulgaria and Finland. And
finally, after much reluctance on
Mr.. Molotov's part, they concurred
in decision to convoke the long
deferred 2l-nation conference to
study and discuss those treaties, and
make recommendations on them,
without having its hands tied by
mandatory rules of procedure die
tated by the great powers.
In agreeing on the five treaty
drafts, of course, the Foreign Min
listers had to resort to compromises.
Thus, in the case of Italy, they post
poned decision on the colonies for
another year, and they worked out
a plan for the internationalization
of Trieste-"a great experiment" in
Mr.. Byrnes' not-too-cheerful words,
that should determine whether it is
possible for the United Nations in
situation of this kind to reach a
solution" Similarly, they arrived at
less-than-perfect arrangements re-
garding terms for the other defeated
countries, notably in relation to the
principle of freedom of navigation
on the Danube River.
Nevertheless, since it would have
been overoptimistic in the extreme
to have expected the Big Four to see
eye-to-eye on every issue, compro-
misses of some sort were inevitable.
Without them, as Mr.. Byrnes has
just observed, there would have been
nothing but deadly stalemate
poisoning the international atmos-
phere more than ever and blocking
even small measure of progress
along the rocky road to peace. As
matters stand, therefore, there is at
least this much that is encouraging:
Starting fortnight from now, the
first general conference since the
end of the war will be in session to
make the first real start on re-
establishing normal life and order in
Europe. To be sure, this will involve
treaties for only five nations, and
not the all-important problem of
Germany and the peculiarly signif-
cant Austrian situation. But if the
21-nation meeting does its job we'll,
and if its recommendations are not
merely brushed aside by the Big
Four, the task of building a peace
system for the whole of Europe will
become that much less difficult.
In any event, assuming that the
forthcoming general conference will
be reasonably successful, the way
will be open for concentrated at
tack on the Austrian and German
problems. To this end, Mr. Byrnes
favors the idea of holding another
session of the Council of Foreign
Ministers as soon as the 21-nation
meeting acts on the pending five
treaties. Meanwhile, it may be said
that the session which has just
ended, even though limited in its
accomplishments, has served at least
to put the peace-making machinery
In motion after months of deadlock
among the Big Four. That may be
small progress, but it is still progress,
and the world can be thankful for it.