The Wilmington morning star., 1947-06-23
Today And Tomorrow
By WALTER

If it's fundamental conception
is respected and followed, Secretary
Marshall's Harvard speech will
mark the beginning of a more ma
tural and normal relationship be.
teween the United States and the
Euopean world. Mr.. Marshall in
sisted that the plan of European
rehabilitation should be made in
Europe, not in America, and that
our role is to support, assist, and
encourage but not to initiate and
lead, or to compel an American
plan.
For we have realized. as the
gravity of the impending crisis
has become better understood,
that if Europe is to become less
dependent upon US economically,
is must become less dependent
politically. Thus, as long as Mr..
Bevin and Mr.. Bidault look first
to Washington on European ques-
tons, they will not come together
as Europeans. The fantastic fact
that there is not yet a common
Franco = British : Belgian = Dutch
policy about Germany and the
Ruhr has almost certainly been
due mainly to an excessive defer
ence to and preoccupation with
Washington.
The Harvard speech is, 1 be-
lieve, intended to change this false
relationship among the European
nations and with this country. 1t
says in effect that instead of each
of them seeking agreement with
us separately, they should agree
among themselves. For we cannot
govern Europe and do not want
to have to try. The European ma
tons must govern themselves in
order that we may be able to help
them effectively over the transl-
ton from war to peace. To be-
come self-supporting they must
begin by being ~self-reliant.
This does not mean that We are
withdrawing from Europe. We
shall continue to maintain the
balance of power along the Stet-
tin-Trieste line and in the Middle
East, and we are offering to sup
port a program of European re-
covery. This is in no sense iso]a-
tionism. But We shall have to draw
back from too intimate entangle-
ment, from excessive intervention,
in the interior life of the European
Continent.
The agreement just made with
the Greek government is a con-
crete example of this too intimate
ENHANCEMENT and excessive inter-
vention. Even if We admit that in
the case of Greece there was no
alternative what we have gotten
into in Greece is a clear and strlk-
ing example of what we cannot
afford to let ourselves in for in
other countries. If what we have
to do in the way of governing
Greece is the Truman Doctrine
in practice, then it is out Of the
question that we should apply it
elsewhere in Europe.
Imagine trying to do anything
resembling the Greek operation in
Italy, or the Netherlands, not to
speak of France or Great Britain!
The Greek ENHANCEMENT illus
trates perfectly the necessity for
The basic change in our European
policy which the Marshall speech
signalized.
The New World can. as Canning
said more than a century ago, re-
dress the balance of the Old World.
But it cannot govern, administer,
direct, or, except in limited
amounts and temporarily subSl-
die, the Old World.
If Europe is threatened by
Soviet imperialism, the United
States cannot save Europe by con-
fronting Russia alone. Europe
must save itself only if the main
effort of salvation is made in Eu-
ro,ot.
The deep wisdom of the Har-
ward speech is that it rests upon
a true estimate of u relation
ship with Europe, avoiding both
the fallacious of isolation and its
no less fallacious alternative,
which is universal unilateral in
tervention or what Theodore Roose-
welt used to call the policy of
"meddlesome Matte"
The needs of Europe are urgent.
Nevertheless, now that we have