International Cooperation or World Calamity
International Cooperation or World Calamity The abrupt termination of I,end Lease to (ireat Britain Mid other countries is the first grave error committed by the Truman administration in the domain...
...It is true that the obstacles to the working of such a federation would have been formidable...
...To aurvive, to accomplish the tasks of reconstruction, to make herself « bulwark of peace, Britain will have to retain the principles of her "managed economy" and con* tinue social and economic controls as instruments essential to her very life...
...A satisfactory aolution of the problems connected with the task of bringing about an orderly transition from war to peace has a vital relationship to economic reconstruction in this country and everywhere else...
...To a far greater degree than the United States they have sacrificed the economic wealth they had accumulated for generations to make victory possible...
...In such a federation poverty would have been almost automatically diminished because large economic enterprises of mutual benefit which were beyond the capacity of any singla state could have been undertaken by cooperative effort There would have been an adequate market for the more efficient mass-production factories and a onse^uent lowering of the cost of living...
...In I he final analysis, however, Britain's "man...
...They disintegrated rapidly before Hitler's method of Combining force with intrigue...
...la this area, before the outbreak of the second v*erId War...
...No bilateral or tripartite alliance ran guaranie* peace, security and dessocratic progress...
...While Britain has all but reined ber peacetime economy in the interest of winning the war, the United State«* has emerged from the war the meet powerful economic nation in the world, ready to convert from war to peace within a few months and to confront Ureat Britain with a competitive advantage of crushing power...
...But the law does not expire until next May...
...If she ia to survive, she must resume and expand her foreign trade as a means of getting the necessary food and raw materials from abroad and of restoring her capital plant for the production of peacetime goods...
...If we do not play our part, in accomplishing this task, if by actions such as the abrupt termination of 1.end-Gease and by creating a Chinese tariff wall around this country we make it im-imssible for Britain to regain and improve her old economic position, if we resume the prewar path of economic nationalism, we shall prepare the basis for another world catastrophe in which we shall go down together with the rest of the western world...
...It is gratifying to know that the League is employing its considerable influence in the direction of a factual analysis of the problems of world organization in some of its literature...
...The fairy-tale that Britain has been using our Lend-J/ease goods to bolster her own position in world markets was invented by economic isolationists in this country, avaricious for the lion's share in world trade, regardless of what unbridled competition tor markets would mean eveulually lo all peoples, including our own...
...Their emergence waa a result of the evaporation of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, tha defeat of Germany, and the collapse of the Russian Empire...
...And the war, in its economic implications, has not yet come to a termination...
...To help restore her to that position would be only sound American economics...
...Eight of these countries—Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Hungary, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia did not exist aa independent states in 1SU...
...as ? (he position of other countries in the global scheme of things, the basis, the core of a belter world rests within lha Anglo Saion nations because they are economically I he most important and politically I he most advanced...
...Still the need for postwar association to assure independence received some recognition...
...Perhaps the slogan of federation may yet become a rallying cry of freedom for the much suffering peoples of Kastern Europe...
...Pressure on Finland is strong...
...Britons—and the world—have everything to gain from economic cooperation...
...One out of every three houses in the United Kingdom has been destroyed or damaged...
...So ? ? time ago this column criticized a pamphlet, The Story of Dumbarton Oak*, issued by the National League of Women Voters, on th* ground that its treatment of the powers of th* Security" Council was inaccurate...
...After Eastern Europe had lost its independence the federalist mood was revived and strengthened among the gnvernments-in-exile...
...Only Greece seems definitely outside the Soviet orbit...
...versus the "free enterprise" of the United Nor should Britain's "managed economy" Stales constitute an obstacle to such cooperation...
...It is the mime earn *·*- Ihr alternativ* ia »«>n.<- variety »I telalitariaaasm—and continued poverty, iar »Irina ine taring ¦ · ears agaia of nationalist feuda aad Ike heavy harden of militaries...
...Britain has a population one-third that of the United States with one-eleventh of the area and only one-fifth of the wealth of this country...
...A Polish Socialist, Feliks Gross, has recently put together, in a very informative lit He book, the main projects of political, economic and cultural federalism which have been under discussion in recent years...
...That Lend-Lease would be terminated at the expiration of the law or at the end of the operations connected with hostilities was, of course, clearly understood...
...So arbitrary combinatioa of twe or three atate* joined in aa alliance by a treaty ran be a substitute for fedcraliaa...
...One •r the free teat might -ha va fcnaa of the pariasi be-tn eea the two wars ia tha creation of aa effective federal aaiea of this area...
...Equal in nuaaber, curiously enough, to the thirteen original American colonial, those thirteen states ef Eastern Europe differed profoundly among themselves in language, culture, historical tradition...
...The Balkan countries were linked together in the loose form of a Balkan Entente...
...Wo have had enough eaperienrc with alliaacea and roanter-alliancea ia thia region...
...Without ? the war could not have been won...
...The British had every legal and moral right to assume that there would be a transition period of weeks or even months after the actual occupation of Japan during which they would be given an opportunity to work out with the government of the United States some substitute for Lend-Lease before the economic relation* of the countries were readjusted to a so-called "business basis...
...II is up (o Ihr administration to demon si rate now that it means what it savs when it preaches international cooperation...
...There is no use in preaching postwar international cooperation unlewt we are prepared to implement what we preach...
...Columbia University Press...
...cooperation of America and Britain...
...Nation« Charter and the Bretton Woods agreements, it was no less important for the cause of world rehabilitation to refrain from taking a step that would make the attainment of this objective more difficult...
...Great and decisive as has been our country's contribution to victory, the American people have been spared the sacrifices, sufferings and privations inflicted by the war upon the British people...
...The contention that there was no reason for tarprise on the part of the countries affected is without foundation...
...The indecent haste with which we terminated Lend - Leas* has made it extremely difficult for Britain to cope with immediate and intricate problems resulting from the sudden developments in the Far East and from her general position at home and abroad...
...the war Britain was-our best customer...
...We Americans do not know the unutterable weariness of mind and body experienced by the British during nearly six years of fighting...
...International Cooperation during the conflict...
...This last state of affairs prevails in Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Rumania and Czechoslovakia...
...The Administration still had a full eight months to consider this question—barring contrary action by Congress—not merely in the licht of the wishes of our economic isolationists bet from the point of view of our national interests and of world reconstruction...
...In view of their particularly difficult economic position the Brtish should have been given at least that much time to make necessary readjustments...
...However, my conviction remains unchanged that The Story of Dumbarton Oaka is an unhappy example of the kind of propaganda that errs by ignoring and glossing over difficulties, thereby paving the way for later confusion and ultimate disillusionment Precisely the same criticism, In my judgment, is applicable to the film Walchtower Over A atari* ira and to some of the speechmaking propaganda on behalf of Dumbarton Oaks in which certain representatives of the State Department have been engaging...
...Poland and Rumania concluded a military alliance...
...That is tne meaning of the electoral victory of the British Labor Party...
...in particular, a painful interruption of the cooperation of the Anglo-Saxon countries...
...As Gross pointa out, an East European federation would be able to undertake projects of flood control and measures of industrialization which would relieve the constant pressure of population on the rural areas...
...Not only were tbero strained relations between individual states, but relations between racial groups in the same state, between Pules and Ukrainians, Serbs and Croats, left much to be desired...
...The abrupt termination of Lend-Lease, unless immediately redressed, will vastly aggravate this situation and pave the road to another collapse and depression in this country...
...conditions in Hungary and Austria are still obscure...
...Hved »beut 11j.toaoe* people...
...Britain's "managed economy" dates from before the war, and found Inevitable emphasis Where the News Ends ByWILLIAM HENRY CHAMBERLIN The Case for East European Federation WHEN the Krit World Wir ended, thirteen stetes were In existence in the wide ere* from the Arctic Ocean to the Aegean Sea, between Germany and Russia, which may loosely be called Kastern Europe...
...They ranged in papulation from tribal Albania, with aboi t a million inhabitants, to Poland, with about 35,000.000 There were ahn considerable divergences as regards economic well-being, natural wealth and cultural development...
...International Cooperation or World Calamity The abrupt termination of I,end Lease to (ireat Britain Mid other countries is the first grave error committed by the Truman administration in the domain of foreign policy...
...aged economy" differs only in tempo from the "free enterprise" system of the United States as it has developed under the New Deal and as it must continue to develop in the future if we are to avoid another—and worse—economic crash The latest evidence of that is Ihr Kuli Kmployment Bill sponsored by I he Administration, ? bill which cannot be successful wilhout helping Britain and other countries achieve I heir economic reconstruction and their reintegration in the world economy...
...But it would have been a moat useful and valuable check on aggressive totalitarianism, either in Berlin or in Moscow...
...If the Administration thought it imperative to bring about a speedy ratification of the United...
...ApART from the consideration which Ihe British people deserve for I heir contribution to victory in these terrible months when they stood alone between the Nazi tide of barbarism and civilization, they have a special claim for aupport because of the economic losses incurred during the war, losses far beyond those suffered by this country...
...The principle of nationalism which led to the establishment of many of the naw states was too often untempered by reasonable recognition of the lights of other- nationalise...
...Neither Britain nor America has anything to gain from ruthless trade rivalry...
...It is a damaging blow to faith in postwar world cooperation and...
...The United Nations Charter to which we profess so great a devotion will not be worth the paper it is written on if Britain goes down in economic collapse, deepening thereby the social and economic crisis and accelerating the evil forces of economic autarchy and hence of political totalitarianism...
...There were disputed boundary issues...
...This action bears the earmark of appeasement by the Administration of thjse economic interests in this country Which continue to cling to the delusions of isolationism and would have this country return as speedily as possible to that economic "normalcy" which was at the root of the great prewar depression and a cardinal cause of world catastrophe...
...The heart of his menage, and it is certainly confirmed by the experience of Kastern Ktirop« between the two wars, is expressed as follows in his own words: "Democracy cannot be established in Central and Kaatera Europe without federalism...
...When the President announced the ce/sation of Lend Lease no Allied forces had yet landed in Japan, nor had the terms of surrender by Tokyo been signed...
...Vila...
...There can be no l mied Nations without (he union...
...Kar more than we, the British organized their economy for total war, sacrificing thereby more than two-thirds of their exports, the blood and marrow of then-economic existence...
...Ihe • ¦•ones...
...The whole tragedy of the aeeead World War aad Ha bleak a ad forbidding aftermath might have been averted if these eeen-triea had becsase thirteen slates of a larger federation, without easterns frontiers and with a pooling of military forces agaiaat aggression...
...Croiiroade of Two ('nnfinent...
...Two others — Rumania and Yugoslavia -greatly expanded in area and population...
...Free federation and democratic progress, are unthinkable in an atmosphert of arbitrary annexation (Eastern Poland and th* Baltic States) and puppet governments, created and removed at a nod from Moscow...
...Whatever may have been th* military considerations involved, it is politically highly unfortunate that the Balkans and Poland could not have been liberated from the German domination with tha active aid of American and British forces in 1943, or early 1944, that the line of meeting between Soviet and Anglo-American armies could not have been the Dniester, not the Elbe...
...Because of her losses in gold and foreign exchange, her forced sales of securities to meet the requirements of war, and of her accumulation of foreign debt, she his lost fully one-half of her national income...
...Recently my attention has been called to other literature put out by thia organization recognizing the difficulties, and imperfections of the proposed voting procedure and recommending that no country be allowed to be a judge in its own case...
...Composed of small and medium-sized states, such a federation would in all probability have cherished no aggressive designs aga nst any foreign state...
...Political cooperation without economic implementation would be a snare and a delusion...
...Whether the Soviet Union can digest over a hundred million people of various nationalities in Kastern Europe and whether the United States and Great Britain will acquiesce in the creation of such a formidable unbalance of power in Europe are still open questions...
...The Little Entente of Czechoslovakia, Rumania and Yugoslavia, was formed, largely as a protective measure against Hungarian claims to lost territory...
...Their overseas assets have decreased by more than $8,000,000,000, while their overseas liabilities have mounted lo about $14,000,000,000...
...By Feliks Cross...
...This would have been especially true if the Ukraine and the Caucasian Republics, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, which possessed independent governments until these were liquidated by the Red Army, could have been drawn Into the federation...
...For now this vast area has escaped from on* totalitarian yoke only to fall under another...
...Most important of all, the military strength at the disposal of such a federation would have been an effective barrier against the Nasi Drang nach Onten, and against the more recent Soviet Drang nach Weiten...
...In many cases shore were bitter memories of past injuries, given and received...
...Kut IhpHc combinations fell far short of the requirements of a federal union...
Vol. 28 • September 1945 • No. 35
