Evening star., 1950-09-30
u, n. Volunteer Guard
To Fix Common Front
Only Way 10 Security
Free Nations Must Foce
Realities or Perish,
CoIumnist Declares
By Dorothy Thompson

By Dorothy Thompson
There is no doubt that unless
still free nations form a common
front for collective security most
will perish.
Yet each government, and peo-
pie, naturally thinks first of itself
Only those states will sacrifice tc
protect others who are least i'm
mediately threatened-at present
the American nations.
Apart from the primary concern
with self defense, old habits OF
mind also persist. The French
still envisage the Rhine as their
frontier, though it would have
been wiser to have recognized a
frontier at the Dniester. The
European community does not yet
conceive of itself as one state with
one big inland lake and one long
vulnerable land frontier. The
Atlantic community is not a polit-
ical union; it is only a coalition
Mobile Guard Needed.
If, within these realities. there
is to be mutual armed protection,
it seems logical that there be a
force directly responsible to the
protective league.
But Secretary Acheson's pro-
posal to the U. N. General Assem-
bly, was the old idea of having
various U. N members earmark
contingents of their national
armies to be on call if needed.
Korea has proved the ineffec-
tiveness of this. which, from an
American viewpoint also is dubi-
ously constitutional. I am not
aware that the American Congress
has ever passed a bill empowering
the President to dispatch troops
anywhere on earth for the defense
of any state attacked.
What is patiently needed for
collective security is separate
force, responsible to the collective
will. operating under U. N. deci-
sions, as mobile guard, with its
contingents stationed in the vari-
GUS critical areas of the world un-
til -uch time as general pacif1ca-
tion may be accomplished.
Essentially such a force would
be of a voluntary character. The
United Nations, as such, can con-
script no one. It could, however,
rally and equip volunteers. In
such a case, the nationalities of
recruits would have no signifl-
canoe.
There would be no conceivable
objection to Germans or japanese
Joining such a force. as individual
persons. And two places where it
should be stationed are in dis
armed Western Germany and
Japan, to supplant present occu-
patton armies.
Such a force should have one
allegiance, one discipline, and
one command, at the top. and in
the various theaters. Its oath
should pledge its members to at
tack no country, but always to
defend-as the Swiss soldier. un-
der his constitution, is banned
from aggression and pledged to
defense.
Not Difficult to Raise.
Would it be difficult to raise
such a volunteer force?
! do not believe so. Today,
thousands of young able-bodied
men. many with military training,
are unemployed in refugee camps,
homeless because of aggressions.
To them honorable activity is a
spiritual longing and necessity. A
U. N. police force would appeal to
idealists. Since it would be the
first to take the brunt of unpro-
voked aggression it should be the
best paid, best equipped, most
highly honored force on earth.
Composed of free men, exercising
free choice, in the defense of the
weak, it would appeal to the nat
urally gallant.
In all armies the volunteer is
the most dependable soldier. And
the present situation is absurd
Suppose a man wanted to ioin
the U. N. forces IN Korea-pre-
cisely because it is a U. N. defense.
He couldn't do it! Shortly after
the Korean aggression, some
young Frenchmen appeared at an
official American headquarters in
Paris to enlist for Korea. There
was no way to take such enlist
ments except into the United
States Army, and the suspicion
was aired that what they were
really after was United States
citizenship-which, under present
circumstances, would seem a fair
price.
Morale is decisive in any con-
f1ict. A carefully screened force
of free men, operating by their
own decision, is politically and
psychologically the proper force
to oppose the conscriped armies OF
slave states.
(Released by the Bell Syndicate, Ine.) Z.