Evening star., 1951-12-21
Disarmament and the u. M.

Disarmament and the u. M.
Through Its Special Political Committee the
United Nations General Assembly has properly
and emphatically rebuffed the men of the Krem-
lin for trying to sell the world phony bill Of
goods In the field OF disarmament The rebuff
has taken the form of complete and over
whelming rejection of all their efforts to push
through amendments aimed at cutting the heart
out OF the Western plan for reducing and con-
trolling armed forces and arms of every kind,
including particularly atomic weapons In short,
once again, the vast majority of the U. N. has
made unmistakably clear that it will have no
truck with the Soviet proposals.
Instead, by vote of A to S (the five being
the Soviet bloc), the Special Political Committee
whose action will soon be duplicated by the
Assembly as whole+has adopted the Western
plan as the only plan that promises any dis
armament system worthy Of the name. AS first
proposed by France, Britain and the United
States what the plan calls for, in broad outline,
is action by separate Stages-including ultimately
hard-and-fast agreement on rigid control Of
the atom-that would do the following: u) Gre
ate permanent corps OF expert U. N. inspectors;
(O provide for thoroughgoing inventories of the
armed forces, arsenals military production, etc.,
of every major country; and 90 circumscribe the
Big Five veto and break through the Iron Cur
tain to a sufficient degree to guarantee un-
hampered, continuous international veri1cation
and policing to minimize the danger of violations
or evasons by this, that or another power
tempted to prepare clandestinely for q war of
aggression.
1t is discouraging measure of their present
intentions that the men of the Kremlin have
IN MI In, fuyO NOV of
would obviously reduce it to an absurdity First
Of all, they have tried to wheedle and bulldoze
the U. N. into voting for an immediate and
unconditional ban on atomic weapons That is
to say, without offering any balancing guarantees
on their future course, they have demanded that
the United States, together with its Allies, disarm
itself right away. of its biggest single military
advantage at this Stage-the A-weapons lead
that is serving now as great deterrent to Soviet
aggression Secondly, while insisting that such
a ban be put into effect before anything Is done
about setting up genuinely effective regulatory
system, they have advanced the proposal that
the Vests disarmament ideas be modified to the
extent of placing enforcement operations within
the framework of the Security Council In BRIEF
as usual they have come out foursquare for
control-and- policing arrangement that would
permit them at any time to veto control and
policing.
In fatty rejecting these proposals and adopt
ing the Western plan, the Assemblys Special
Political Committee has acted in accord with
simple common sense. AS result, the approved
plan viii now go to the new single commission
that Is to take over the work of the deadlocked
Atomic Energy Commission and the deadlocked
Commission on Conventional Armaments. The
Russians have agreed to this merger Of agencies,
but that is the only thing they have agreed to.
Needless to say, when the merged body starts
dealing with the majoritys program for arms
control, they will still shout to high heaven in
behalf of the ideas they have been trying to sell
ever since the end Of the war. In other words,
they can be counted upon to keep on demanding
that the U. N. accept what the y. N. has re-
peatedly turned down-nanely, wholly made
quate and fraudulent disarmament system.
Accordingly, since this Is something that the
U. N. will never agree to, and since the Kremlin
has given every evidence of being determined
not to yield on the issue. the world must resign
itself to continuing deadlock. The bleak truth
Is, in fact, that the deadlock will remain un-
breakable unless and until Soviet policy under
goes a revolutionary change for the better-a
change opening the Iron Curtain wide enough
to permit real inspection and control. without
that, the present arms race--the most dangerous
in history-can hardly be brought to an end,
and the free nations must do everything possible
to win it. Their survival is at stake.