Evening star., 1955-10-06
The Only Course


the New York Council on Foreign Rela-
tions and the other to the United Nations
British Foreign Secretary Harold Mac
milan has offered good advice to the
world. It is advice that exhorts all
peoples and governments to remember
that the search for peace will almost
certainly be long and arduous, that 1t Is
likely to entail many setbackS and dis
appointments, and that 1T must be
carried on, despite this, with patience,
perseverance and sincerity
The same counsel. of course, has been
voiced on numerous occasions ever since
the end Of the Second World War, but its
restatement and re-emphasis are partic-
ularly pertinent In the present fluid state
Of international affairs. The spirit OF
Geneva"-the spirit generated at the Big
Four summit" conference in July--has
brought about hopeful change in rela-
tionS between Russia and the West. But
the duration of the change is not guaran-
teed. On the contrary, it still remains
largely thing of words, and until those
words are translated into concrete deeds.
all of us must reckon with the possibility
that the bitter and tense pre-GenevaI
temper may appear again at any moment,
putting an end to the thaw in the cold
war and bringing on a new deep freeze. {.
AS Mr.. Macmillan has said, the first
real test Of the Geneva spirit" win come
at this months meeting of the Big Four
foreign ministers. And 1t will come on
the issue of Germany's reunificationI
within an overall system of European
security France, Britain and the United
States have proclaimed themselves to be-
firmly united on proposals Cd to re-
establish the Germans as genuinely
free nation at liberty to belong to the
Atlantic alliance and (2) to provide the
Soviet Union with special guarantees
against the danger OF resurgent German
militarism. The big question is whether
the Kremlin will agree, or at least permit
some progress toward agreement. II the
answer is no, then there will be every
reason to believe, In Mr.. Macmillan's
words, that "Russia's refusal to liberate
Germany Is based s.. on the wholly
illegitimate determination to consolidate
her grip on one half of the country, and
even to extend 1t over the other"
At the moment, all signs indicate a
negative Soviet position, but that should
not serve as grounds for despair. MIR.
Macmillan has spoken common sense on
this point. As he has put 1t, Ii the Krem-
lin rejects the Western proposals at
Geneva, There will, am afraid. be
nothing for 1t but to settle down to a
long haul Of negotiation. =. We must
be patient, remembering that In the
past-for example, over Austria-the
Russians have shown themselves cap
able Of some give when all their
previous words and deeds have sug-
gested they had dug their heels in for
ever. We must be strong, until fair and
genuine measures of disarmament afford
us some relief. And we must never cease
to oppose to the forces of communism all
those moral forces which ore really the
strongest weapons !. !"
This is advice that should be taken
to heart throughout the free world.
Under the best of circumstances. a real
peace-a decent and enduring peace
will be long time In the making. And
II the coming Geneva conference fails to
achieve anything, II the old German
deadlock continues~as unbroken as ever,
the United States and its allies, while
remaining strong in arms, must keep on
striving to break that deadlock through
persistent negotiation with Russia. Short
Of war. there is no other course to follow,
and war in the atomic hydrogen age has
ceased to be an instrument Of rational
international policy.
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