Evening star., 1950-01-08

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as are the nations of the Old
World. Yet for SO years their re-
lations with one another have sell
dom been marred by serious war
and bloodshed. At least during
that period they have made more
progress in the voluntary peaceful
solution of their international dis
putes than the balance of the
world has made since the birth
of Christ.
Since 1900 two catastrophe
wars have ravaged and devastated
Europe and Asia and taken the
lives of millions of men, women
and CHILDREN. A dozen more
bloody conflicts were fought in
the Balkans. the Near East and
Asia. During those same years
the entire North and South
American continents have expert
enced only half dozen interna-
.tional clashes.
One of the most serious of these
was our invasion of Mexico just
prior to the first World War. An
other was the long drawn out
border dispute between Paraguay
and Bolivia in the Gran Chaco of
South America which reached it's
climax in the early '30s. Even the
fighting in the Chaco> was even
tually halted and a satisfactory
solution of the border question
worked out through the co-opera-
tive methods and procedures
which the American nations have
applied to their regional disputes
over the years.
Haitians Massacred
One of the bloodiest, if not the
most ineXcusable of these con-
flicts also took place in the '3Os,
when 10000 Haitians, who had
been accused of occupying or
squatting on Dominican territory,
were brutally massacred. Fortu-
nately. the tragic incident was
not allowed to lead to open war
fare between the two countries.
There were brief encounters be-
tween Peru and Colombia over
q remote piece of Amazon jungle
territory called Leticia, and the
more recent clash between Peru
and Ecuador. Both of these diff
f1culties were settled by the peace
full and friendly efforts of their
neighbors.
Within the past IL months two
minor threats to peace, one in
volving Nicaragua and Costa Rica,
and the other between the Do
minican Republic and Haiti,
have SO far. been kept under con-
troll by. the peace machinery of
the Organization of American
States. Even the current sword
rattling of Dictator President
Trujillo of the Dominican Repub-
lie over what he charges are plots
by Cuba and Guatemala to over
throw him is already being dealt
with by the Peace Committee of
the OAS.
This American machinery of
peace. which characterizes the
Organization of American States
is something unique. It is the
oldest. as well as the most sue
cessful international peace body
IN existence.
Long before any one even
dreamed of the League of Ma
tons or the United Nations, lead
ers of the American republics had
been gathering periodically in
public meetings and thrashing out
in open debate their neighbor-
hood problems and disagreements.
The first of these meetings took
place in Washington, D. c., on
April IA, 1890, when delegates of
the various countries met and
passed a resolution setting up the
NO4AllC1 Vial DQi cat VI G1lC SlllCl =
lean Republics" It's duties con-
sisted primarily of gathering and
passing on trade and other eco
nomic information. But during a
long series of meetings held in
Mexico City from 1900 to 1902,
the work of the bureau was ex-
panded and transformed into the
Pan American Union with a staff
of eminent scholars and diplomats
to direct and operate its many
agencies.
Model for Atlantic Pact
Finally at another and more re-
cent meeting in Mexico City, in
1945, complete reorganization
of the Pan American Union was
agreed upon, the details of which