Evening star., 1949-04-27

LcS SOOuy IH euPPVG VI tue At
ldnttc pact:
I welcome this opportunity to-
discuss with you the North Atlantic
treaty signed on April 4. That treaty
II no new document to you. It has
been developed, to an extent with
out parallel In my knowledge, as a
cooperative enterprise between the
executive and legislative branches of
the Government and particularly
between the Department OF State
and this committee. Without the
vision and assistance Of your chair
man, Of your former chairman, and
the members Of this committee, this
treaty could never have been con-
cluded. The text embodies many
constructive suggestions from mem
bers Of the committee.
The President has spoken on the
treaty in recent weeks, and the De-
partment Of State has made eyail-
able q considerable amount Of
source material regarding 1t. Since
you already have in your possession
some of what I shall say today, I
shall make my statement as short
as possible and will then be at
your disposal for questions.
I should like briefly to. review
with you the reason for this treaty,
and its purposes.
It has been well said that Every
one wants peace, but not everyone
Is prepared to work for It," No
people in this world want peace
more than the American people.
They have always wanted 1t, they
have sought it in various ways. but
they have not always been ready to
work for it. If we wish peace we
must be prepared to wage peace,
with all our thought, energy and
courage. That is the purpose OF
this treaty.
When the United States was
small and weak country, isolated by
many weeks from other continents,
our forefathers wisely based our
foreign policy upon the realities Of
those times, and we managed to
stay apart, to a large extent, from
developments In other lands.
However, our responsibility for as
sisting in the maintenance of peace
beyond our borders has been long
recognized and assumed. For more
than a century and a quarter this
Government has contributed to the
peace of the Americas by making
clear that it would regard an attack
of any American state as an attack
on itself. We gave our unilateral
declaration to this effect. AS the
years passed and our neighbors to
the south grew in stature, they &C
cepted q similar responsibility.
But beyond this responsibility. we
did not see clearly the impact Of an
unstable world on our security. In
1920 many nations of the world
joined In an attempt to maintain
international peace and security
through the League Of Nations. AL
though the President of the United
States had played leading part In
drafting the League Covenant, the
United States was not prepared to
enter the League, and we withdrew
from the participation with other
nations in their first effort to wage
peace On . worldwide basis. Aga
consequence, we had no effective
mSxHs To prevent the Second World
War.
But by ls45 after the tragedy of
involvement In a Second World War,
We realized fully that times had
changed. drastically and irrevocably.
TIN the responsibility ofstl1is gen
Grafton % base the conduct of for
eign affairs upon the realities Of
today. Today no place on earth Is
more than o few hours distant from
any other place. Today neither dis
tance nor ocean nor air affords
security. Security today and hence
forward can only be assured, in the
Presidents words, by stopping war
before 1t can start.
Greater Effort Undertaken.
In 1s45 a new and greater effort
for the maintenance Of international
peace and security was undertaken
In the establishment Of the United
Nations. In the Preamble of the
Charter the peoples of the United
Nations expressed their determine
ton Ito save succeeding generations
from the scourge of war, which
twice in our lifetime has brought
untold sorrow to mankind ="
"And for these ends
to practice tolerance and live to-
gether in peace with one another
as good neighbors, and
to unite our strength to maintain
international peace and security,
and
to ensure, by the acceptance OF
principles and the, institution Of
methods, that armed force shall
not be used save in the common
interest.
The first purpose Of the United
Nations, as stated in Article of
the Charter Is ito maintain inter-
national peace and security, and to
that end: to take effective collec-
tive measures for the prevention
. SIlu IcQlOVH Oh ClHedS 10 Tie
peace, and for the suppression of
acts Of aggression or other breaches
Of the peace, and to bring about by
peaceful means, and in conformity
with the principles of justice and
International law adjustment or
settlement of international disputes
or situations which might lead to
. breach Of the peace"
The American people overwhelm-
ingly accepted this commitment
and the other commitments laid
down In the Charter. They showed
not merely their desire for peace,
but their determination to work for
peace through full participation In
effective collective measures for the
prevention and removal Of threats
to the peace and for the suppression
of acts Of aggression" The hopes of
the American people for peace with
freedom and justice are based on
the United Nations.
Goes Further Than Kellogg Pact.
The Charter not only spells out,
as did the Kellogg Pact, the essen
tial principle of settling disputes