Evening star., 1951-01-05
The Essentials of Peace


situation, President Truman has voiced the
hope-a hope undoubtedly qualified by many
grave doubts in his own mind-that all the
worlds troubles may yet be settled by diplomacy
rather than by war on global SCALE
Hope is good. Hope is essential. It is an
affirmative virtue worthy of cultivation in
times like these that try mems souls and lend
pausibility to the counsels of defeatism and
despair. But it is thing that ought not to be
allowed to degenerate into mere wishfulness
AS far as war or peace is concerned, it must
be keyed to the realities of the hour-specifi-
caly to the reality that the forces of aggression
as led by the Kremlin and now operating in
Korea, do not seem to have the slightest desire
for an honorable diplomatic settlement
Where is there any suggestion of such
desire in what the Chinese Communists are
doing? Who can see any evidence of it in the
harsh and violently mendacious harangue that
Soviet Delegate Jacob Malik has just unleashed
in the forum Of the United Nations against the
"warmongering" "cannibalistic" United States?
Where is there shred of it in the incendiary
propaganda with which Moscow is now bonn
harding the Russian people and every other
people behind the Iron Curtain? That propa-
ganda is depicting our Nation as "depraved"
and "hysterical" land whose insane" leaders
are fiendishly plotting to plunge the world into
catastrophe armed conflict. How can all this
be reconciled with the idea that the Kremlin
and its puppets-these butchers ,of truth, these
subverting conspirators these aggressors fanati-
caliy bent on conquering and dominating the
whole of free mankind-are motvated by
honesty, sincerity, good will and good faith of
kind that is indispensable to the achievement
OF a decent peace through the channels of
diplomacy?
Actually, although hope is a spiritual
nouriSher that ought never to be abandoned en-
tirely there is little or no reason to believe
that diplomatic negotiation with Communist
Russia can result in anything of enduring value
unless and until the men of the Kremlin make
up their minds to Cooperate with our world
on what the United Nations has called the
essentials of peace" These essentias-as set
forth in resolution adopted in December, 194s,
by So members of the General Assembly (the
Soviet bloc alone dssenting)-would solemnly
commit every nation to do the following, among
other things: Q) To refrain from using or
threatening to use force in violation of the
U. N Charter; 60 to honor the independence
and integrity of other countries 90 to be faith
full to international agreements; a. to remove
barriers-the Iron Curtain-that deny peoples
the free exchange of information; (5) to estab-
lsh liberty of speech, assembly, religion and
other human rights; and (6) to join in pro-
SA@AAA VI 6C1uAlACly cueCGlVe atomic cOnJrOl.
Here are rules of international conduct
fundamentally vital to the effort to establish
good and lasting system of international collec-
tive security. Yet every one of them-without
exception-has been and is still being persist
emily and deliberately violated by the Soviet
Union and It's satellites. That is why our time
Is as troubled and fear-ridden as it is That is
why the free nations-al of them eager to put
the essentials of peace" to work on a universal
scale-are acutely sensitive to the gathering
clouds OF war and to the need to unite and re-
arm accordingly.
Can diplomacy rectify this situation and
settle all the problems to which Mr.. Truman
has referred? One can always hope Indeed.
one should cling to hope as long as possible.
But let none OF us delude ourselves: There can
be no peace worthy of the name, and the threat
OF global war will mount steadily as long as
the Soviet Union refuses to make basic revision
for the better in its present policy.