The Wilmington morning star., 1947-06-06

. Inc r~atl1lcatlon Of the treaty
WILL establish an international
frontier which is legally binding
upon ali the United Nations. The
violation of that. frontier would
then be a question for the United
Na'lons. If, however, the treaty is
not ratified, the dividing line viii
be merely the present armislice
line which is held py British and
American troops. For this reason
1t seems to me that we have the
greatest IN .erest in a prompt 1ati-
flcatlon of the Italian treaty, and
of the others which are grouped
with it. For this will broaden the
responsibility for the maintenance
OF law and order to include all the
United Nations. Delay, on the
other hand, which in present con-
ditions may be tanta mount to re-
jecting the treaty, would put upon
us, with such help as the British
could give, the sole responsibility
for maintaining the territorial in
|tegrity, and maybe the independ-
ence, of Italy.
That would, l believe, multiply
the risks and greatly increase the
burden which we nave assumed.
No doubt we shall nave to supply
the economic support for Italian
relief and recovery. But what we
must seek to avoid IS finding our
selves in a position where an Ital-
ian government, opposed b. great
masses of Italians, is sponsored
and supported by the United
States alone.
That would be ruinous to the
Italian government, since it would
be pictured as a minority govern
ment and a puppet o. the United
States. The State Department has
already laid itself open to that line
of attack, which the soviets will
surely pursue, by its effusive md
clumsily timed Endorsement Of the
new De Gasperi government.
Europe cannot be saved from
Soviet domination or from eco
nomic collapse and anarchy by a
series of unilateral American in
terventions. The supreme problem
which ~confronts Secretary Mar
Shall is to e~xtricate the United
States from the consequences and
the commitments of a spasmodic
unilateralism and to get it re-
placed by a European policy
which we can promote, induce.
and support but cannot initiate
and impose-of reconstruction and
%unification and sterilization.
We are in grave danger not of
withdrawing into isolation as in
1919 but of advancing into isolated
interventions all over the globe.
We are not strong enough or wise
enough to do that successfully,
and we shall squander our influ-
ence, our power, and our re-
sources if we attempt it .
Thus we should not have a
United States-Italian policy. as
we now seem to have, but only an
Allied policy in which Great Brit
ain and France, at the minimum,
have an equal moral and political
responsibility. For to have an
American italian policy is not 4
true policy of International COOP
GRAFTON but in the literal and worst
meaning of the words ar "en-
tangling alliance"
We are too far out from. in too
many places. We are taking en-
ourselves too many problems. We
are making too many quick decl-
sions. We are accepting too many
moral commitments. W. r strik-
ing 100 many attitudes.
For our own good and for the
sake of peace most OF these things
should be shared in the process of
decision, shared as to political re-
sponsibility, with other govern
ments. For otherwise we may find
that Uncle Sam is the head of the
parade and that everybody is out
of step but Uncle.
Copyright, 1947, New York Trl-
bune Inc.