Evening star., 1953-05-15
A House Divided


President Eisenhower has been making a
commendable effort to shore up the foundations
Of the Western alliance.
The walls of this structure, built by great
effort and at great cost over the past several
years, are not in imminent danger of tumbling
down. But there are wreckers at work on
both sides of the Atlantic-men who seem ready,
consciously or unconsciously, to divide and
destroy the house that shelters our mutual
security
Mr.. Attlee touched the match to tinderbox
of accumulated strains and grievances with his
irresponsible speech in the House of Commons.
The reaction in our own Senate could not have
been worse for Western interests If Mr.. Attlee
had planned it that way
Senator Knowland accused the British of
advocating Ear Eastern Munich" Before
applauding galleries. Senator Mccarthy sug-
gested that the British were trying to blackmail
us into accepting armistice terms in Korea that
mean defeat. eff that is true," he continued,
then say to them: Withdraw from Korea and
be damned. And then let us sink every ac-
cursed ship carrying material to our enemy to
kill our boys" Senator Dirksen joined in to
predict that as result of the Attlee speech
"the knife will go infinitely deeper" into pro-
posed appropriations for foreign aid.
There is danger, perhaps, of overestimating
the significance of these verbal fireworks. But
certainly it would be equally dangerous to
underestimate their seriousness. The line that
MIR. Attlee followed has a considerable political
appeal In Britain. And there is no doubt, as the
applause from the galleries signif1ed, that Sena-
tor Mccarthy was appealing to a sense Of
bitterness and Illustration in this country that
is by no means of insignificant proportions.
49, 49,. -.
differences that tend to drive wedge between
our allies and ourselves. Coming events are
certain to magnify rather than diminish these
differences. And as popular irritations grow,
there will be a mounting temptation to seek
some narrow political advantage by exploiting
sources of discomfort.
Conceivably, this sort of thing, in time,
could wreck the Western alliance. If that
should happen, nothing that Senator Mccarthy
has ever uncovered or dreamed up in his investi-
cations could even approach being as great a
boon to the Communists or greater betrayal of
our own vital interests. The prospect of cutting
our own throatS, however, will not necessarily
check the forces here and abroad that are
blindly working toward that result.
The President has tried to check them in
his press-conference remarks and in the State
Department comment, which he indorsed, on
Mr.. Church1lfs proposal for h1gh-level con-
ference with the Russians. The President was
careful to say nothing which would infame
partisan passions. He lodged questions which,
if answered directly, could have forced him into
positions which he might regret having taken.
AS our troubles mount this is the only rational
attitude for responsible leaders to adopt. For
as Italian Premier De Gasperi has warned, the
Western world must form an unshakeable
hlO0-ffiC fS strength
the field of defense but also in the field of
constructive progress"
Whatever they may think they are doing,
the extremists. in Congress and in Parliament
actually are tying to tear down and destroy
this essential unity. They ought to pause and
ask themselves whether they really want to
succeed, whether they really want to be the
architects of what, for the Communists, would
certainly be their greatest triumph, and what,
for the free world, might well be a decisive
defeat.