Evening star., 1947-03-09
..N. N.Watching
And Waiting
Arms, Atom Decisions
Held in .Abeyance
by Tension
Ry Naf Rnrro,ye
By Nat Barr0,ys

LAKE SUCCESS.-Like men ad-
vancing upon untried and exceed
ingly thin ice, the world diplomats
at the United Nations are moving
with extreme caution in these Gays
Of puzzling vacuums and potential
crisis. .
There is a nervous strain In the
atmosphere. As never before the
delegates study the pos
sible meaning of far-dung events
and try to fit them into the pat
tern of the United Nations.
The result Is obvious.
Until the United States deter.
mines its policy toward the chal-
lenge of a declining British infiu-
ence in GREECE and the Middle
East, little or no progress can come
In the Security Council sessions on
disarmament and atomic control.
The United Nations already has
been treading. water against the
impact of the unfinished peace
treaties with Germany and Japan.
Now, more dramatically, it faces
the pressure of the British eco-
nomic and political crisis, the
enigma of Americas course In
helping to fill the vacuum and,
above all, the certain knowledge
that the Soviets and Communists
everywhere will make all possible =
advantage from the emergency.
1t is hardly satisfactory atmos-
phere In which to debate either
general disarmament or control of
atomic energy.
Phony Gesture.
Almost everybody at the U. N.
except the Russians will admit
that neither the U. N.
nor world public opinion Is yet
ready for any serions kind of dis
The Russians got 1t on the agenda
at last falls General Assembly and
they fought it through to accept
ance. 1t was clearly phony gesture
to capture public imagination and
give the Soviets credit for initiating
grand move for peace.
The Soviet tongues were In their
cheeks then, and they are there
now.
Actually, If the Russians meant
what they said at Flushing last year
they could ease the entire disarm-
ament and atomic control rnuddle
in so many days.
The other big powers, naturally,
had to get on the Soviet bandwagon
and ride along with them on dis
armament. They had no other
choice, once Molotov had sounded
the trumpet call from the rostrum.
Many shrewd observer saw that
the last thing was being put first.
That has been proved in the
ensuing four months. The correct
move would have been to concentrate
on the realities Of world political
problems rather than the utopian
dreams of arms reduction.
No nation, obviously. can afford
to relax its security until the inter-
national tension has been eased and
some progress has been made in
economic recovery.
President Truman's recent policy
statement might have come from
any of the other major powers:
I'VE must not allow our weakness
to invite attack"
Security Versus Sovereignty.
= 1t is this spirit of doubt about one
another's sincerity and honesty that
the disarmament debate drags itself
along tediously.
Until the present output Of i'm
pressive but generalized double-talk
settles down to practical issues, dis
armament and effective atomic con-,
troll are far away.
The most emphatic problem Is, Of
course, the setting up of a security
system that will work. But this
collides with the dangerous issue
Of national sovereignty.
How far is any nation willing to
permit international inspectors In
side its borders, able by their mere
presence to pry into many secrets
to their inspection job2
Russia says it agrees in principle
to international inspection. Putting =
1t into effect inside Russia is some
thing else again.
One wise old diplomat here sums
It up thus: When we see the major
and particularly Russia and
the United States, really working
for the establishment Of an inter-
national army, then we will know
that we're on the right track.
fy,a skrfb.,s~A 49, kka RAta.A~ TH~nw