Evening star., 1951-11-04
The Assembly in Paris

When the sixth session of the United Nations
General Assembly opens in Paris on Tuesday. the
member states will face pretty much the same
problems as they faced at the fifth session last
year. Most of the problems are as grave as any
that have ever bedeviled the world but at least
1t may be said that they do not seem to have
grown worse with the passage of time and that
there is still fair chance that they can be
solved, slowly but surely in way that will
prevent another global war.
Biggest of all the issues confronting the
Assembly is the shooting war in Korea. At the
moment the ceaSe-f1re negotiations are progress
ing we'll enough to suggest that before the Paris
meeting ends the members may be called upon
to deal with collateral political and economic
matters, including permanent Korean peace
settlement relief and rehabilitation program
for the country's stricken people, and the highly
explosive questions bearing upon Red China's
admission into the U. N. and upon the status
OF FormoSa, which is now held by the Chinese
Nationalist under Chang Kai-shek
There can be little dou5t-especially if an
armistice agreement is reached in Korea in the
days Immediately ahead-that many members
OF the U. N. will bring strong pressure to bear
in the General Assembly for action to admit
the Chinese Communists and eject the National
lists. The pressure is likely to come not only
from the Soviet bloc but from a number of other
countries-including India-convinced that the
realities of the situation demand such action.
If the current truce talks drag on frutlessly this
issue, along with the Formosa issue, may be
held in allegiance, but If the talks succeed, the
United States and like-minded nations may be
hard put to block moves that could readily be
interpreted as appeasement rewarding Red China
for its criminal aggression.
Other problems looming large at Paris include
the following: 1) Britains potentially dangerous
difficulties with Iran and Egypt; (2l the con-
tinu,ng threat of Kremlin- directed Communist
6" teSSion notably against Yugoslavia in Europe
vulnerable lands in Southeast Asia: (3l the
general wave of economic unrest and extreme
nationalSm in the Middle and Far East; a. the
India a-Pakistan feud over Kashmir; 90 lack of
progress toward converting the Israeli-Arab
armistice into defnitive peace settlement under
which both sides could hope to work and prosper
together without fearing each other; and t6) the
deadly mpasSe on control of the atom and on
reducing and regulating armed forces in gen.
eral-a deadlock that is to be dealt with by
new agency scheduled to take over the work of
the U. MS separate commissions on atomic
energy and conventional armanients.
All this constitutes only sketchy outline of
some of the more portentous matters that will
weigh heavily on the minds of the delegations
representing 60 nations at Paris. The outline,
however, is full enough to make clear that this
new meeting of the Assembly, by what it achieves
or fails to achieve, will have a far-reaching
influence in determining whether events are
going to keep on drifting toward another world
war or whether they are going to be reversed
and directed toward an era of peace. The
answer, of course, rests primarily with the men
of the Kremlin they have merely to abandon
their policy of non-co-operation and aggression
to change the whole outlook very much for the
better.
In any event. regardless of the Kremlin. the
General Assembly's overwhelming majority is
majority that votes and acts on the side of the
free world And although it cannot of itself
prevent war, it can continue at Paris to function
as great moral force restraining the aggressors.
That, plus the rearmament of the United States
and it's Western Allies, plus also the historic
stand taken by the u N. in Korea, may yet be
enough to make the Soviet Union turn over a
new leaf and join in solving the problems that
must be solved before mankind can enjoy
real peace Everything considered, there is still
reason to be hopeful on that score.