The Wilmington morning star., 1947-09-06

credit promiscuously.
Bid For Cooperation
BY ANNE oTARE MCCORMICK
Delivered from a platform exemplifying
hemisphere solidarity, the Presidents defini-
ton Of American policy at Petropolis had I'M
usual force. The idea Of Pan-America, united
by formal treaty in a common defense sys-
tenn. makes an extraordinary impression on
the rest Of the world. New, rich, uncrowded.
unsecured by wars, in spite Of differences
and inequalities more cooperative than any
area Of like size on the globe, this complex
of American nations looks extraordinarily
powerful viewed from Europe and Asia. When
people beyond the Atlantic and Pacific speak
Of the West" they do not think of Europe
any more, but of these vast continental is
lands stretching from pole to pole. This, as
Mr.. Truman said. is the future, the New
World.
The hemisphere bloc is not 30 strong and
solid as it seems, but it is stronger today
than ever before, and far more impressive
than Americans ina CINE. Thus when the
President Of the United States speaks at the
inter-American conference in Brazil, his
words have more power behind them than if
they were uttered in Washington. A foreign
policy summed up in that environment, in
that atmosphere of agreement, achieves
something like the effect of an all-American
policy.
The four pillars of this policy, Mr.. Truman
stated. are the Marshall plan ("economic
help to those who are prepared to help them
selves and each other"), the obligations I'M
dertaken under the United Nations Charter,
the maintenance of military strength and the
unity of the American republics against
aggression. He made it clear, in other
words, that peace would have to be built by
all the means available-our own power and
resources, unflagging efforts to make the
United Nations a going concern and agree
ment in this hemisphere. The treaty of Petrop-
oils sets a precedent for regional pacts with
in the United Nations which widens the area
Of cooperation and, if followed elsewhere,
would quicken and strengthen the process OF
world organization.
Bat the pronouncement was addressed
mainly to Europe, mainly, indeed, to Russia.
The President expressed "bitter disappoint-
ment and deep concern" over postwar devel-
opments. The failure to make peace, he
warned, obliges us to contemplate a pro-
longed military occupation Of enemy terri
tory.
AS Mr.. Truman was speaking, the State
Department released a reply to the Soviet
protest against the decision to raise the level
of industry in the American and British zones
in German which should be regarded as an
apt illustration Of the speech. For over two
years, the note said in rejecting the Russian
thesis that this action violated the Potsdam
agreement, the American Government has
been trying to reach accord on matters at
tecting Germany as a whole. 1t is the failure
of the Soviet Government to implement the
Potsdam pledges that places a heavy finan-
cial burden on the United States it does not
intend to continue.
This points up more sharply than before
the new American policy of trying to reach
q 0rnaoop Will D~ec;. ~ ~oc,1I1 ,~l -.:n.
ahead on our own if necessary. 1t shows what
Mr.. Truman means when he declared that we
are prepared to carry on military occupation
indefinitely. Moscow is not yet prepared to
believe that. Soviet delaying tactics are based
in part on a desire to keep the world un-
settled and in part on a conviction that Amer
leans will not sustain a long guard in Eu-
rope and cannot. because of the inevitable
depression, carry out a program of economic
nelp to it's friends.
If this turns out to be wishfulr thinking, the
realists in the Krenlin may decide it is easier
to get rid Of us by making peace. Moscow's
unexpected ratification of the satellite trea-
ties, coinciding with the dispatch of replace
ments to italy. might well be a move to
hasten the withdrawal Of American troops
from that area. At any rate, the decision to
make the Anglo-American part of Germany
self-supporting and use Ruhr production as a
vital element in carrying out the Marshall
plan is a %top-level decision. 1t will not be
rescinded.
Essential to this plan, however, is the CO.
operation OF France. This is recognized by
most OF the advisers-men like Commissioner
Robert Moses and Lewis Brown, chairman of
the board of the Johns-Manville Company
who have been asked by the War and State
Departments to survey the German problem
and suggest a solution. The reports prepared
by these and other observers emphasize that
the key to recovery is the Ruhr, that time is
running against us and that it is imperative
to set up a once some new form Of manage
ment and control. Mr.. Moses, for instance,
prefers a long-term international Authority to
the five-year trusteeship plan favored by Gen
eral Clay. Mr.. Brown lays great stress on
the fact that British coal .is as much a fac
tor in European recovery as Ruhr coal. If the
British filled their old role of supplying and
transporting coal to Western Europe, he be-
lieves, half the problem would be solved.
All agree that France should be taken into
full partnership with Britain and America in
the administration of an integrated plan for
Western Europe, including Germany. This is
to say that the solidarity of the countries in
terested in the Marshall program is as es-
scntial to the success of Mr.. Truman FOUR
point policy as the solidarity of the American
republics. The significance of the speech at
Petropolls is as the first official bid for CO.
operation between the American system and
Western Europe.-New York Times.
Quotations