Evening star., 1948-12-12
The Work Done at Puris

ne WOTK OOne ot T0rIS
Stree it can do little more than debate
issues, adopt resolutions and create moral
pressures, the General Assembly of the
United Nations is not in good position
to make concrete contributions to the
specific settlement of international dis
putes But though its accomplishments
thus tend to be rather too intangible tor
precise measurement, there can be little
doubt that it plays highly useful role as
a kind of world parliament in which all
the members of the u N.-big and small
have chance to be heard and in which
the prod of idealism and public opinion
can be employed to promote peace.
This is consideration that needs to be
kept in mind by anybody who seeks to
evaluate what the Assembly has achieved
at its Paris meeting, which began on Sep
tember % and which now will be in recess
until April /, when it will reconvene at
Flushing Meadow, Long Island. To say
that the meeting has been shining sue
cess would be to ignore the fact that it has
decided to suspend deliberations with
much of its original agenda still coming
under the head of unfinished business.
Thus, owing to general desire among the
delegations to be home for Christmas,
nothing of def1nitive nature has been ac-
compliShed as regards such issues as Pales-
tine and the disposition of the former
Italian colonies.
Nevertheless, whatever its shortcomings,
the Paris session deserves to be credited
with having carried out considerable
measure of constructive work Certainly,
it has broken significant ground with its
unanimous adoption of the convention out
lawing the crime of genocide, and it has
set up an inspiring goal for mankind with
its overwhelming approval, over Russian
opposition, of resolution to establish
universal human rights of a kind not found
behind the Iron Curtain. Beyond that,
despite the deep encouragement created
by the Soviet blockade of Berlin, and al
though all enforcement powers are vested
in the veto-paralyzed Security Council, the
Assembly has dealt with key disputes effec-
lively enough to keep the historical record
straight, clarity numerous complex factors
behind the cold war between East and
West, rally the great bulk of world public
opinion to the cause of peace with justice,
and exert, in that way moral influence
whose weight, though difficult to measure,
is not to be discounted as force serving
to stay the hand of aggression.
Thus, with Russia and its small bloc of
servile satellites alone dissenting, the Gen.
eral Assembly has voted Overwhelmingly
for the nuclear energy control plan advo-
Gated by the United States-a vote leaving
the Kremlin morally isolated, and on the
propaganda defensive, as the sole power
responsible for the worlds failure so far
to, set up rigid safeguards against the
terrible danger, of an atomic war. Thus,
too, again with the usual Red dissent, 1t has
condemned Albania, Bulgaria and Yugo-
slavia for threatening the peace with a
policy calculated to overthrow the Athens
government and place Greece in Moscows
pocket. Finally, through its powerful Po-
litical Committee, it has called upon the
Soviets to stop their subversion in Korea
and cooperate instead in making the
country genuinely free and independent
All these measures, of course, will lack
force as long as Russia contemptuously
ignores them or nulliies them with the
veto. To that extent, it may be said that
the Assembly's latest session has been
largely a matter of arriving at high
minded decisions without having any
means, and little hope, of putting them
into effect. The decisions, however, have
the full backing of most of the world, and
they thus add up to moral reality and
a public-opinion pressure that the Kremlin,
despite its seeming indifference, can hardly
afford to laugh off. In that sense, GER
tainly, the work done at Paris must be
regarded as work significantly helpful to
the task of building good peace.