Can We Make a Lasting peace? - two Ptovocative Answers
RUSSELL, BERTRAND
Can We Make a Lasting peace? — two Ptovocative Answers Our World After the War -A Plan for International Action By Bertrand Russell THE Moscow Agreement and the subsequent Senate Resolution have...
...Churchill, before he was Prime Minister, wrnve articles in favor of a United States of Europe...
...It hs natural for English people to concur m Mr...
...Uaiqaely enough, h« recognize* the reader's right to form aa opinion for himself...
...The problem of self-government in weaker countries...
...Chamberlin is not driving home sny opinita...
...In' any case...
...The Moscow Conference has opened to the world a number of constructive possibilities...
...None is more promising than the possibility that Marshal Stalin will discuss soon with President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill the chief problems of the war but also of the peace...
...Since American no nay <**# constructed sirfiehn m Asia, these see to belong to American companies after the:vWar Lend-Loase obligations incurred by'Great Britain are to be liquidate*- in Middle Eastern oil and Pacific islands—including New Zeaoaad...
...V—future ftefotioRS of the Greet Powers IN the post-wsT world, the dominant Powers *• will be the United States and the U.S.S.R...
...Germany and Japan might have to wait a long time, but not forever...
...But when we try to translate these generalities into prartiaal detail, prpbjems arise...
...Chamberlin is the level-headedeat of all radical democrats He w. it possible, a little toe level-headed when it ceases to appraising the statistics ef brutal oppression in Russia...
...That is Secretary Hull's way...
...There are minimum conditions...
...It far sn enlargement of the battlefield...
...And if it should be adopted officially by Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin as the basic principle of the United Nations in dealrrg with all questions of annexation in Europe, a sound foundation would be laid for European peace...
...No problem that will face Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin will be more difficult to solve than this problem of European peace...
...India has bees promised self-government at the end-of the war if the various parties can agree on a constitution, but it is unlikely that this condition will he fulfilled...
...At the close of the last world war...
...many cf the .weaker nations »Continued en fas* Savon...
...There are...
...Japan is densely populated, and a large' proportion of its population are - desperately poor...
...That principle laid down by Lenin is as true today as when he penned it...
...the Alliance sheald gnsnsssst it against unconstitutional usurpation by any powerful group ; *r party...
...It has however one very definite advantage over die League of Nations, namely that America and Russia arc to be members of it from the beginning...
...V. The future relations of the three Great Powers: America, Great Britain, and Russia, particularly in relation to Asia...
...Such membership wiH be for them a valuable privilege, since ft will carry with it a guarantee of their independence...
...This requires that there should be no excessive economic penalties...
...But within and subsidiary te that over-all organisation - there may be many regional organisations...
...It is, however, mere likely to be secured if there is s frank realisation of the dittoed ties...
...Ail islands, including the British Isles and Awstrsma...
...He is merely stating »tth "meaicaloas care and loyalty aft the terms or the problem...
...I will not hazard a guess as to the outcome.' In Africa the only difficult territorial question will be as to the disposal of the Italian possessions...
...according to some...
...France, and having, at last, acquired the help ef Russia and the United States, should not be expected to surrender territory in the moment of a victory which, but for their sssBsMsstness in 1940, could never have been achieved...
...Secretary Hull is no boudoir favorite and no phrase-maker...
...The only hope for a peaceful worll is to utilize the years immediately after the end of the war to persuade both Germans and Japanese that, if they abandon dreams of world conquest, they car...
...so could a resurrected Austria...
...He does not mistake a phrase for a fact...
...At the close of the»last world war the statesmen failed to meet that acid test...
...The result would be to give the United Stats* financial supremacy everywhere, anr...
...In any disagreement, each side would be tempted to enlist German support, and before long an" unregenerare Germany might again be playing the game of power politics...
...But other states (not being ex-enemies) should be admitted whenever the governing body of the Alliance is convinced that they sincerely support its aims and are willing to subscribe to its constitution...
...They amy be willing, on liberal principlsa, fe soncefle self-government to Indis, but "they wK see no reason to mske concessions to s rtvwl imperialism, whether that of Russia or that ef the United States I am not arguing that Hgi will be right in this, but only that it Is what may be expected of a victorious nation in "fee moment of triump The United States of Europe— An Essential Step to Peace By William C. Bullitt *yHE future of mankind is being determined in conferences * no less than on fields of battle...
...Their heavy industry must for a fairly long time be controled by the Allies, to prevent secret rearm a. men...
...They may try to keep Indm...
...I—The International authority It has been decided tbat there is to be an international authority, open to all peace-loving countries on the basis of unimpaired national sovereignty, and...
...Meanwhile, as Americans Irving in one of the few nations where speech is still free, we have the right—and the duty— to consider and to discuss the basic problems that confront Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin...
...THE problem of Europe ie the central problem of this war...
...as it was the central problem of the last world war Both began in Europe and...
...It is difficult to practice the necessary mitfid severity without tanning among the defeated a resentment which wiH make continued repression necessary for a long tine...
...Membership must only be open to those states that are willing to enter into a defensive alliance with all other member states, pledging themselves to go to war with any state guilty of aggression against any member state...
...This, however, raises certain pteb-em« which the course of the present wax hat made evident...
...They hsve ao interest in the facts...
...Territorial questions, rfl...
...Without foreign resources to exploit, the Japknese cannot all keep alive unless they "have a large export trade: but it may be expected that countries which have been at war with' rhem will not be very ready to admit their cheap goods, nor will England and America welcome a revival of their competition in Eastern eatr-kets...
...It would be highly desirable to give the Alliance some control over the sise of national armaments, but 1 do not think that either Russia, or the United States would agree to this...
...British hnperiaBam Will be making its bid for preservation of file status quo ante...
...Europe, the central problem of the war and of the peace, will have its fate decided without being able to raise a voice in its own behalf...
...when the fact is that this has - been not the century of the common man but the century of the uncommon criminal—the dictator—and that in no century have so few powerful criminals inflicted such sufferings on so many common men...
...It would pot necessarily have to be...
...Posterity...
...Finally, I shall consider what ought to be our aims if we wish to make the best possible use of the more or less makeshift settlement that is probable at the end of the war...
...They cannot defend themselves against powerful neighbors, and if tbebr independence is to be guaranteed by the allien"*, they will have to submit to certain conditions...
...Soviet imperialism is (we are told) purely defensive: in a world of potential enemies...
...If the thirty peoples of Europe—more than 200 million of the most vigorous and highly developed individuals on this earth—are again left without some sort of a federal organization to integrate them in a peace group, we shall once more find ourselves at no distant date involved in another European war...
...Hull's direction in the Department of State, Polities is the art of the possible...
...form of its State life by free voting, and completely frle /roM Ike presence of the troops of fac annexing or stronger State and without the lea'1 pressure, then the adfoining of that nation by the stronger State is nnn«r(j.ftaw, that is...
...had Fascist governments which had acquired power, not by omwaStutsusal means, bat by ana use of military force, if we see ia sejjtjet ** |eof owing ourselves advocates of uciisWsargO' are should at leas* decree that m the European i countries which we aea tflmretiag tee foam of government to be iiqjiUrtil 111 mil be decided by a aemooratsr ptuusdmo, I do not say that it should be a democracy, for some nations might decide democratically m favor ef some other form ef government- When the form of government has- been chosen democratically...
...are fncapajhlv of becoming peaceable neighbors, and that they will always be secretly on the lookout for sow* new opportunity of world conquest...
...It cannot succeed unless the backing powers remain more or less friendly to each other and prepared to make the comparatively slight efforts in the present that will be neededi to obviate the necessity of great efforts in the future...
...But India is no more justified than any other country in claiming to be free of all the rent of the world, unless freedom is going to be used in ways not harmful to the rest of the world...
...The atosaetf of future peace is not good if there is to be a conflict between three imperialisms, 'those of Russia...
...I am convinced, will paint a Marker sndtar* than Chamberlain does...
...The new American imperialism which is si umhsg' we saasmg ssx^Utionlsts Is not (in the mata...
...England and America...
...Woodrow Wilson rightly said about that "Great Unrepresented" that the treatment accorded to Russia would be "the acid test of good will...
...is important to the British because ef its oil, and to the Russians for the further reason that it would give them warm water ports...
...unless the problem of peace in Europe can be solved, we shall have nn rnore peace after this war than we had after the "last war...
...two Ptovocative Answers Our World After the War -A Plan for International Action By Bertrand Russell THE Moscow Agreement and the subsequent Senate Resolution have made it clear that mate of the questions which will arise in making peace have been decided by tiv...
...At the outbreak of the presett war...
...Europe, the mother of all western civilization, will be unrepresented...
...Japanese conquests, including Manchuria and Korea, will no doubt be taken away from Japan, but there is likely to be disagreement between Russia and China as to what should be done with them...
...Lenin made a most reasonable written proposal to settle the twenty-one wars then in progress on the territory of what is now the Soviet Union...
...with the British Empire taking the third place...
...Whether the Alliance will gradually dissolve through impotence, like the League of Nations, or grow in strength and take on new functions, will depend upon many things besides its initial constitution...
...Australia mill still be coveted by the yaltow races, Chinese if not Japanese If Aaetrattt Is to be safe for white man, the American Woe must hold Singapore and the Dutch East indies...
...AHu...
...Both countries must be disarmed and subjected to military occupation by the victors...
...And it is not likely that the victorious nations would all agree to continue such repression after the passions of the present war had begun to cool...
...To one the enigma la eat Russia, bat the attitude toward Russian of westers liberals —an attitude of mystic worship and shameless self-deception sad seta*-contempt far which Lean had a* parallel in history...
...in fact, the weaker members must nit W'jittofro to take refuge in neutrality, except bg ^he ^express permission of the Alliance...
...The same sort of thing might happen with Japan if China and Russia were on bad terms with each other...
...no change of constitution should be permitted except as the result of a democratic vefet taken under the auspices of the Asia nee...
...Any state failing to fulfill its obligation when called upon to fight an eggresson -must be expelled from the Alliance...
...All member states must agree that in future they will not consider any new treaties valid until they have been ratified by the Alliance, and that already existing treaties will be submitted to the Alliance within some assigned period of years...
...But the territorial front wHl bring Russia into conflict with England in the Middle East, and the propagandist front will bring Russia into conflict with the United States everywhere, especially in Franca, Italy asm BpVm...
...Both English-speaking nations have toHay the most profound admiration for the heroism of the Red Army and hope to be able to cooperate permanently with the great Russian people...
...The Alliance should consist, at its inception, of all the states that have been at war with Germany or Japan, including, of course, those whose territory the Germans have occupied...
...but as to the latter there is a strong case for some kind of international control...
...2 J.' The problem of Japan is similar, but more difficult...
...If Holiamd meanwhile, were in the Soviet orb*, this Would require the severance cf "the Dutch East incus* from Holland...
...The result may well he a vaat disaster, in which Japan will lose the capacity to rise again to the level of a Great Power...
...The British will expect to recover Burma and the Malay Peninsula, including Singapore...
...It is a pfflicy hmpfrsfl % b% bonnes...
...This is a certain formate for the production of a nVw world war...
...There win be in Europe a powerful movement for shear revenge, particularly amoruf the nations which have had to endure a German occupation...
...a United States of Europe of the sort that Churchill used to write about: but some sort of.a federal organisation of Eurepe hi essential for European peace...
...Similarly, an integrated Europe could be created by a European Federation...
...In some respects, however, the Moscow decisions were vague,- in others, they were not made public There is therefore still s large measure of doubt as to what the settlement will be...
...The problem of India can be solved by such a policy as I have been suggesting...
...So far as the public has been informed, nothing has been settled as to the constitution and duties of this authority...
...I know how reasonable his proposal was, because I was Chief of the Mission sent by President Wilson to Moscow to get Lenin's proposal, But in-' Paris the problem of Russia was not even understood, and the acid test was not met—and not only the Russians but also the whole world, in consequence, suffered...
...la that case, China will acquire the position in Asia that has recently been held by Japan, and Japan wiM eease to be a major international problem...
...Only a paranoid with a persecution eoarptex could do justice to some aspects of life under the Gaypavoo...
...The outside werld, therefore, should retain the right to intervene to prevent civil war...
...India claims the right to bo free of England, and is quite justified in this claim as soon as the war hi/over...
...There are...
...we have therefore a framework within which useful diseussion most be confined...
...The present claim of India, if granted,1 would almost certainly lead to a civil war between Moslems and Hindus which might easily become a world war...
...therefore is not recogntaei .as iiiiperisBsiu % many Americans...
...IV_SoH-&everamen* in rVeoher Ceeefriei f T is generally agreed that small countries, Such * as Holland and Belgium, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark, whose only crime is paucity of population, should remain independent...
...Aad this win...
...Probably Great Britain has agreed, or will agree, to abandon Southern Persia to the Soviets...
...When that period passes, human institutions congeal again and stiffen, until they are melted once more in the crucible of war...
...The fact that this principle is of Soviet origin will no longer prejudice either Americans or British against it...
...some other conditions to which they should be subject...
...Each helps the other: people think better Of the Russian regime since it has defeated the Germans, and in the Balkans the Communists are fighting valiantly for Russia...
...The question of freedom for India is therefore likely to remain a difficult one...
...I db not see how the Japanese people oar be spared appalling calamities if they are to be prevented, as they should be...
...If the leaders of the nations work well during the period when the world is in flux, they mold life into a form closer to the desire of all decent men for liberty and peace...
...Btrt if things sre left to take their naestsai course...
...liiirlsMml...
...I am not considering what should be done, but what will be done...
...If this is to be effective, there will have to be a judicial body having the right and the duty to declare, in any given case, whether aggression has taken place...
...there is so be an Ihrnamarliiisl nvreney baaed on gold...
...It would seem probable that they will be divided between France and England, except 1'or Abyssinia, which will be independent...
...It is impossible to appose such conditions upon the Great Powers, bat in the ease of the weaker Powers they might be made s condition of membership of the Alliance...
...You will not find hint announcing that "this Is the century of the common man...
...The imperialist movement in Japsn arose largely as s means of allaying social unrest, and defeat is likely to lead to revolution...
...wSl be in the American sphere of nmnssvse: -so w he the con t: nestt of Africa...
...Each ef these has Iff own character and its own justification...
...That...
...The Gngtieh will -net readily .surrender Syria, Pskstht and Iraq...
...If they work badly, they produce not freedom and peace but an uneasy armistice, which'they call peace—until it collapses into new conflict...
...On capitalistic principle* these rlahns may seem not urjustfiahle...
...to Groat Britain ahd to Europe that the Atlantic shqpdd remain a bridge linking America with Europe' in a Angle Atlantic community of western civilisation ahd should apt become a ditch separating the view world tanas the and world The fight for s democratic Europe, sufficiently united- to join ourselves and the British Empire in leadership of the western world, is a Hvgieal extension of the struggle tar a federation- of free peoples...
...The region...
...governments of the United States, Great Britain and Russia ft is very unlikely that any important changes #411 be made in these respects...
...It would be a fitting tribute to the genius of Lenin if this principle of hit should be adopted as the cornerstone of peace in Europe by Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt...
...Today, the acid test of good will and statesmanship will be the treatment accorded to Europe—file "Great Unrepresented" of this war...
...from exploiting and oppressing leas warlike nations...
...Many will contend that the Germans . aa a whole, net only the Nasis...
...lata-Idea of some innate difference between Germans ancl ethers is absurd, end may do antokt harm, it is to be hoped thst the Americans and 'the British, who have net had to endure the horrors of j| Nazi occupation, will make t stand for sanity, and1 wfl...
...And we must note the extraordinary fact that no European will be present to join in their discussions...
...How will the statesmen of today meet the acid test of Europe...
...hue whole Eurasian occtinont, from Break W VTsdiaaetok, mBi be in the RasiMf spheaa, pise Jens' aUissts and Otina remain fiWmm I base this division of the world on the facts of military stremrtv snJ populsr sentiment, flf it were frankly recognized on both sides, there need he no filaisii between the two groups of Votosfs, It is improbable, hosrever, that things will work out so logically...
...In My Opinion WILLIAM HENRY CHAMBERLIN'S "The Russian Enigma" sweat te " be required reading for every American ha vine to do with public affairs...
...Federalism—or Spheres of Influence...
...Russia's safety depends on two things: defensible frontiers, and the ideological sympathy of many Western nations...
...or tn pro-tents and uprising* again*' national oppression—is not given ths right to determine the...
...I thmk...
...careful patient work is needed, and relentness facing of reality...
...1 am opposed to British imperialism, as to every national imperialism, but I So not take the view, which I find common w this country, that British imperialism is mors Wicked than that of any other country...
...Such a dlvlsioa Of Europe into spheres of influence—one Communist, one capitalist—would lead Inevitably to revolutions and counter-revolutions: a civil fit in Europe...
...It is not a retreat...
...Whatever lajaunam of Internal self-government is permitted to them must net be such as to allow the continued persecution of Jews or of Liberal opinion...
...That art Secretary Hull practices with mastery...
...and eventually to s Soviet-British war in which we certainly would be involved...
...In the agreements pegs tiated by Secretary Hull in Moscow it wss stated that such sn international -organization, based on the sovereign equality of all peace-loving states, and open to a'l such states, large and small, would he established for maintenance of international peace and security...
...Russia was not admitted to their councils—although during the Peace Conference in Paris...
...Bet that is the faalt ef his virtae— which is to be fair, to be teaarieas, to be conscientious, unprejudiced, enexeited...
...and there was no surprise in Washington when the press published the fact that the Four-Power Declaration of Moscow was in large part a text prepared months ago under Mr...
...I propose to consider successively what is probable as regards: L The future international authority...
...The chief of these will be that, during a war waged by the Alliance, the armed force* of jThe stronger Powers shall have access to the ter'i-tory of the weaker members of the...
...III—The Treatment of Germany and Japan ""THIS is the most difficult of the immediate * questions that wiTTaHse at the end of the war...
...have prosperity within the framework of a peaceful international order...
...To transform this century Into a true century of the common man...
...There may suae be difficulties about Japan, which each group -will wish to win to its side...
...The United States, probably in close cooperation with the British Empire, will be dominant wherever sea power is the decisive factor, as well as thronghoo* the Western hemisphere...
...allow the Germans to eherisr legitimate hopes without their having ic resort to war in order to realise them...
...Minor ex-enemies, such as Italy and Hungary, could probably be admitted before long...
...If such an authority is to be effective in preserving peace, it must fulfill certain conditions...
...The treatment of Germany and Japan...
...II—Territorial Question THHE success of the Moscow Conference sug-* gests that the Western Powers have acquiesced in Russia's claims to the Baltic States and considerable parts of Poland...
...Bat during recent months we hsve heard certain English politicians—not Churchill—proposing that Europe should be divided into two spheres ef influence and thus kept quiet: that eastern, southeastern and central Europe shaaM he tossed to the Soviet Union, sad the rest tossed to Great Britain: that Europe as a whole should thus be placed in tutelage to these two non-European powers...
...military supremacy throughout the Western hemisphere...
...But this right should belong to the Alliance, not to the British exclusively...
...Here in 3M clear and cool pages are all the data—geographic, historical, cultural, political, economic—the whole factual equipment that a man needs in order te make intelligent judgments about Russia and Russian-American relations...
...On this foundation what structure should be built* There will be set np at the end of this war an aver-all organization te preserve peace...
...Germany and Japan must be deprived of military power, but not subjected, as Germany was last time, to insupportable burdens in the way of reparations, or to a situation in which war seems the only alternative to starvation...
...and the Chinese may prefer fhe Americans to the Russia -a...
...I shall return presently to a consideration of the prospects in this respect...
...Some things are dear...
...Churehflrs point of view that the British, having betas He brunt of the war alone after the collapse of...
...and at the peace conference in Paris, there was another great agglomeration of peoples unrepresented—the peoples inhabiting the sixth of" the earth's surface which was then called Russia and is now called the Soviet Union...
...The fighting men of the United Nations are winning the war, and the leaders of the nations have begun to try to win the peace At the close of all great wars a moment comes When the world is malleable—a brief period in which human life may be molded by the leaders of nations...
...The Soviet Union itself is such a regional unit...
...Every effort mast be made to mitigate national arrogance aad promote a willingness for international ooeperation...
...ininlnsse thought it quite natural to fight for the rentnrstior of the French Empire m North Africa, although its moral status is exactly the same as that of the British Empire in India...
...concerned exclusively, or at (east mainly, with the preservation of peace and resistance to aggression...
...seizwre by /ores and violence...
...Agrtamest between the three Great Powers is essential, and I think H will be secured...
...Since Au^nc* has all the world's gold...
...therefore, two fronts, the territorial and the propagandist...
...There is every reason why such a European Federation should he linked with Great Britain aad she United States by the closest ties—since it is of vital interest tq oflr hat ion...
...It contains one-sixth, of the earths surface and so many different peoples that its primary school books have to be issued in 156 different languages and dialects...
...Western Europe, Southern Asia, sad the Pacific Meanwhile...
...I judge, is what he asanas by calling bin booh The Kmonian Smiensm...
...alas, prevent most of them fseat reading Cbamberlia's expert hook, which is as perfectly created aad timed to he a guide aad manual for statesmanship in this critical mini rat ^wjnrijaitmr...
...eery nearly aH...
...Lenin on Annexation /"VV November 8, 1917, Lenin issued a statement on peace in Europe which contained the following passage: "it any nation whatsoever is detained by force tntJiin the boundaries of a certain State, and if (that nation), contrary to its expressed desire—whether smoS desire is made manifest in tKe press, national anscmbliet, party relations...
...All Americans have reason to congratulate themselves that they were represented in Moscow by Cordell Hull, who is as American as the Tennessee mountains—strong, as our pioneers were strong, in wisdom, patience, and courtesy...
Vol. 26 • November 1943 • No. 48
