Capital Comment
STOUT, JONATHAN
Capital Comment By JONATHAN STOUT FDR and Stalin Shatter Faith in Dumbarton Oats WASHINGTON, D. C—President Roosevelt returned from Yalta to puzzle diplomatic circle* in Washington by a slashing...
...The nations which occupy these continents may all be scornfully stygmatized as pygmies...
...It was to provide for such a demand that the specious announcement was made that Russia is a federation of autonomous republics...
...Up to a few days ago there was a successful attempt to stampede the public into a notion that the world must choose between Big-Three dictatorship and chaos...
...The plain implication was, of course, that any nation outside the three that has nerve enough to propose an idea of its own is a sabotaging pygmy...
...Jfo *«eatv*lt should have consented to place the *J*"J&t**s« in such an unsavory light as an aecomto anybody still remains a mystery here...
...This, how-War, in quite unlikely;'Although it did not get far Wyond Stettinius...
...It is strange that publicsts here and elsewhere should accept the top heavy and dictatorial voting arrangements proposed for the Security Council and would then balk at such an unimportant matter as giving two extra votes to one nation among 40 in the Assembly...
...And, Anally, the provisional government of Franc* came into the open with a carefully worded but very pungent criticism...
...It is hsrdly to be wondered at that President Roosevelt was hesitant about letting this announcement leak out...
...In fact, at first it prompted lie query whether Roosevelt had not kept it a secret Iran r..,m Secretary of State Stettinius...
...What aboat regional federations In Km ope ? What about the international court and inter- i national law...
...The rase of the constituent parts of the British Commonwealth offers no parallel to or justification of this grotesque demand...
...The Chapultepec parley gave fair warning of what was in store...
...The corridors were full of discussion that went fsr beyond hemisphere concerns, and it waa only with the greatest difficulty that the delegates were restrained from taking torm*l stands on problems of world organisation...
...Three of the world's continents were unrepresented at the Crimean summer resort: South America, Africa and western Europe...
...a repudiation of Jheii ideals of moral principles, as the basis of international law, and American concepts of f»» play and equality...
...What about equality of sovereign states...
...Walter I.ippmann participated in the international game by unearthing Winston Churchill's statement made in 1919: "The war of the giants has ended, the quarrels of the pygmies have begun...
...M,fi *h* readiness with which Roosevelt dropped Jr*** of three votes for the United States IndicatesiuiiL"** not hi> id**' What U doM inaifate that "•Malt pot the United States in the position of ap^y*t ** bo power-hungry and imperialistic as an f**J"'B,od#tton to Stalin, in order to strengthen the *»*f Russia's demand for a three-rote edge on the *#-Mtim of the world...
...At Yalta were represented the three great powers which carry the burden of the war against Hitler...
...A ml so fsr we have had just the barest airing of differences of opinion...
...It is an open secret that Marshal Stalin' asked for 18 votes...
...What about juatice for colonial peoples...
...The situation was an astounding one...
...That leaves Russia alone, of all the nations in the world, asking for special privileges...
...These are the times when the grsvest matters should be discussed in fundamental terms...
...How closely this secret agreement «M guitided is indicated by the fact that ita reveta-tfcn caught even our Si ate Department flat-footed and nth iu chta banging down...
...But it is a beginning...
...But whatever the psychological reason, the fact is that the bars to discussion- are down...
...P* "peculation in Washington now fa whether the J^**** American public protest against such secret "¦•is what Roosevelt had in mind in his original at-**«t he chose to call "perfectionists," and gP* ¦» was not trying to choke off just such • of moral protest by creating in advance an fijy**** onfavorable to what he tried to brand as y^WrtKiBiam,'' but which begins to look more and C Pl»i" American ideals of decency, fair play IPMquality...
...That Roosevelt should "*»**n a party to it was-the crowning blow...
...First, it shsttered the faith of the smaller nations k the notion that, among the Great Powers, at least Ike United State* could be depended upon for vigorous wppoU of democratic principles...
...For the American people it was a disillusioning revelation of naked power politica at woak...
...This comparatively slight show of arrogance waa merely the last straw...
...The revelation resulted in three distinct reactions...
...But the announcement of the demand was met by such a storm of opposition here and elsewhere that he hastily withdrew the American pail of the plan...
...Then the delegates from little Liberia landed on our east rosst on their way to Ssn Francisco...
...Criticism of the proposed plans was damned as isolationism—opposition to the principle of collective security...
...Third, the three-vote scheme—at least insofar as it applied to the United Stales—was promptly and sharply repudiated by the tidal wave of American public opinion, forcing Roosevelt to disown it in ita application to America...
...The USA was to get tarts votes also...
...a postwar peace organiza-ttoa...
...We were given the picture of three men representing three great powers sitting in judgment and handing down decisions which must be accepted as hedged about with divinity...
...But what Anally restored to us the right of free thought and free speech about these weighty matters was the blunder about the three assembly votes for Russia...
...The Road to San Francisco THE past week has seen a heartening increase of critical discussion about the conferences at Dam-barton Oaks, Yalta and San Francisco...
...Then came the news that the governments of Belgium, Holland and Canada had drawn up proposals looking to the smendment of the Dumbarton Osks plan...
...It is true that leading questions are not yet being boldly tackled...
...What about provisions for th* correction of errors ami injustices...
...The result was the shocking expose of the fact test Roosevelt had secretly agreed to support Marshal HamV» demand that Russia be given three'votes in tl projected World Assembly...
...What about the matter of basic objectives—boldly raised by th* French...
...This wtcic start!injc revelations of some of the tterit clauses of the Yalta Agreement served to dis-lisate some v. luit the smoke screen of mystery...
...Bus the demand was whittled down to three...
...Second, ft has raised the question of how many more aecret bombshells remain hidden in the Yalta Agreement...
...It Is now taken for granted that the delegates sssembled in San Francisco will lie free to alter the plans thus far made and that in the meantime we all have the right to make our voices heard...
...Any plan which ia drawn up without their collaboration is foredoomed to failure...
...The President promised to support this demand, and, probably to forestall American objections, played with the idea of asking for three votes for this country...
...But cumulatively they constitute a.large part of mankind...
...But that is the way the human mind works...
...But the drawing up of plans for a world organization is quite a different matter...
...They are black men from a really pygmy land, but they had Ideas...
...Capital Comment By JONATHAN STOUT FDR and Stalin Shatter Faith in Dumbarton Oats WASHINGTON, D. C—President Roosevelt returned from Yalta to puzzle diplomatic circle* in Washington by a slashing attack on "per-hetienisu" as obstructing...
...It was unquestionably up to them to reach the conclusions necessary to unity in the prosecution of the war...
Vol. 28 • April 1945 • No. 14
