Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1947-09-16
HOPE and the Assembly

The General Assembly convenes at
Flushing Meadow today against a BACK
ground of events more conducive to peSsl-
mism than to hope. The worlds 1altn III
the United Nations is at its lowest point
since the drafting of the Charter over TWO
years ago. With the Security Council
paralyzed by the Soviet veto, and with the
gulf between east and west-partlcularly
between the Russians and ourselves-deep-
er than ever, the crucial question Is
whether the assembly can now effect
change for the better or whether peoples
everywhere must resign themselves to
peace not worthy Of the name.
AS it begins its task, the assembly has
about eighty different items on the agenda.
Most of these involve administrative mat
tiers of a relatively noncontroversial ma
ture, but several are explosive in the ex-
IRENE. Thus, the IS nations now gathered
together will have to decide whether or
not the Holy Land is to be partitioned
between the Arabs and Jews They will
have to face the question of excessive use
of the veto in the Security Council. They
will have to deal with the problem of gen.
eral disarmament and Russia's blocking OF
atomic control. Above all, they have to
see what they can do to end the Moscow
inspired aggression of Yugoslavia, Bulgaria
and Albania against Greece-an issuse
whose outcome may determine, finally and
de6nitively, whether we are to have one
world or two, whether the United Nations
is to be success or failure.
Stated another way, 1t may be said that
Ion IN
Assembly for sign that the time is not
yet here to despair of Russian co-opera-
ton. That is the overshadowing concern
of our age. 1t will be In the background
of nearly every ones thinking at Flushing
Meadow. AS far as the U. N. is concerned,
1t is the issue whose settlement, one way
or the other, must profoundly affect the
settlement of virtually every other issue
now troubling mankind. For If there is
to be no change in Soviet policy, the will
of the overwhelming majority will con-
tinue to be frustrated in such fundamental
matters as the Austrian, German and
Japanese treaties, the danger of an anti
Democratic bloc behind the Iron Curtain,
the economic recovery of Europe and Asia,
and the control of the atom. The grimly
simple fact is that prolonged Illustration
of this kind must sooner or later give way
to affirmative action, or the United Nations
will fall apart and the peace become an
armed truce pregnant with catastrophe
for all.
How can the General Assembly help?
Although it can do no more than recon-
mend, 1t is nevertheless the place where
all members of the U. N.-great and small
have an equal right to be heard. 1t is
where there is no veto. 1t Is where the
moral force of the bulk of mankind can be
expressed in way that no power any
where can afford to ignore. Perhaps 1t Is
q weak reed to lean upon, but every peace
loving people must pray that this force
will be felt and that the meeting at Flush
ing Meadow will end with the world re-
newing faith in the United Nations.
Otherwise, in the atomic age, there will be
little left to lean upon but deadly arms,
and little to look forward to but fear
ridden future of collective insecurity full
OF nightmare perils for our own as we'll as
other lands