CAPITAL COMMENT
STOUT, JONATHAN
Capital Comment Should the Senate Ratify Unjust Treaties? By JONATHAN STOUT WASHINGTON, D. C—Just lief ore taking off for Moscow, where the Foreign Ministeis Conference begins work on the...
...The second ground Marshall offered was that immediate ratification of the treaties would clear the way for withdrawal of occupation forces from Italy, Hungary, Rumania and Bulgaria—except, as he himself noted, for thoae required by Russia for maintenance of supply lines through the Balkans to Soviet occupation forces in Austria...
...Like that of Hitler, it represents a rem tionai y, backwardlooking, slave-making sort of regime...
...What of world opinion...
...It can no longer function as the leading western power, (he world's prime protagonist of the democratic way of life...
...The British plea lhat the US take over the responsibility for support of Greece should be viewed in relation lo all of this history...
...Prospects of agreement between the Soviet Union and the democracies are not promising...
...This country is militarily snd indmtrially fitted for the new tssk srith all of ita danger and opportunities...
...Hungary, Rumania and Bulgaria...
...Kill had we not had British imperialism, we should have had imperialism under some other name - and il might easily have been worse...
...Aa a fellow-correspondent whi«»wed to me: "If (ieneral Marshall really ••'loves that, he Is the world's champion •PMmitt and shouldn't be allowed out whhout • nurse...
...The first, he said, was that it would be the "beginning" of restoring peace end stability to the world...
...The campaign of terror and threats carried on by the Kremlin strategists against Byrnes himself on the Trieste question was obliquely revealed by Byrnes when he told the Senators that Yugoslav representatives had made clear their intention to seise control of that city if it were left under Italy...
...Coming from a man who recently returned from China, where a Communist-initiated Civil War It raging full blast, and who ¦ at the moment wrestling with the Pfoblemt caused by Moscow-inspired ••errilla warfare on the borders of Q*ecce, thla was a strangely naive stateWent...
...So Marshall had to BBck up Byrnes...
...Many of them are suspicious toward this talk about the need of US leadership...
...Rut the most pitiless spotlight on the helplessness and frustrations of American foreign policy was unveiled by Byrnes in his discussion of the Trieste problem...
...the face of it,'General Marshall's arguments seemed like a wonderful reason why ratification of any of the peace treaties should be withheld until the whole peace of Europe is concluded and is presented to the Senate as a finished whole rather than piecemeal...
...The Soviet army would remain in Rumania and Hungary ostensibly to protect their supply lines to Austria...
...For a while it sounded as though Byrnes was erecting a Rube Goldberg invention for scratching one's back...
...Hut there is nothing so dangerous as to allow our dreams lo interfere with the...
...If we do not give military and economic support to the countries clustered about u», there will he no genuine United Nations and no prospect of peace In My foreseeable future...
...In lb* Kir»t World Wsr Germsny lose to challenge British I. ob i -lop No matter how skeptical we may Ire about good results lo be reaped from wsr, there must In- few who are sorry that as a result ol lhat conflict the imperislism of Germany did not replace that of Britain...
...What will be the position of Britain and France...
...The State Department has been forced to contemplate the possibility that the German and Austrian treaties will force a break in Moscow-Washington negotiations...
...We are in ibe midsl ol a struggle for power like that which was formerly carried on bv Spain and Britain, France and Britain, Germany and Britain...
...Marshall's position is worth a ¦•merit's thought...
...The conference, therefore, opens under a cloud of pessimism . . . with occasional lightning thrusts of accusations and recriminations between the East and West over Germany...
...International trade' and culture have increased...
...The regime which slogan-slinging writers of our day so easily denounce and deride has, si least, permitted chsnge and smelioralion...
...The meaning of this was not slow to percolate through the interested audience that heard the words...
...te crisis in Korea and the frustration of American >liey there as described by General Hodges...
...If it were lo win over Britain and the US, it would mean, not merely the replacement of one power by another, but a shifting backward of political thinking snd administration...
...Dining lhat struggle the United States, also denounced as imperialistic, teamed up with Britain...
...Under this system progress ha* been made...
...With tire war finished and Germany eliminated, a new power coustellatinu laces mankind...
...We talk now deprecatingly of "British imperialism...
...The event was long awaited, for, although the bearing before the committee was suspended following Marshall's and Byrnes' testimony and will not be reconvened for perhaps two or three weeks more, as everyone in Washington knows, the arrival of the peeve treaties before the Senate will inaugurate a controversial public debate which inevitably will be compared to the debates in thst august bodv on the League of Nations following World War I. this will loom into paramount importance within the next 30 days if, as some competent observers here are predicting today, the debates in the Senate come to serve as the anvil on which a new American foreign policy will be hammered into shape...
...On the final settlement of Trieste, Byrnes said, it was a choice of that "or having no agreement at all...
...I am reconciled to the compromise on Trieste," Byrnes said, "because of my fears as to what would have happened had our proposal been agreed to -and Trieste given to Italy...
...The present conflict is as bitter and dangerous as any former rivalries...
...And on the Soviet side it would mean that the Red Army would withdraw only from Bulgaria...
...There probably would be an appeal to the Security Council...
...It boils down, therefore, to the fact that Soviet military power would remain immovable in the Balkans and only the democracies would move their military forces back home, leaving the Balkans and the entire Mediterranean area at the mercy of the Kremlin...
...Then hn speculated that after withdrawal of American and British forces, inspired rioting would have broken out1 and "Yugoslavia would declare it necessary to quell the rioting on its border and troops would have been sent into Trieste...
...James F. Byrnes, appeared briefly last Tuesday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee lo urge immediate ratification of the proposed peace treaties for lijlv...
...An Editorial— The United States as a World Power ALL ilcm.m rat* look forward lo a period of international peace in which decisions will be made .. by all nations, great and small, sitting iu conference...
...Two, he held out hope for eventual revision of what he termed the "more onerous clauses" of the treaties through a process by which ratification of the treaties would enable Italy and the Balkan nations to apply for United Nations membership and then they could appeal to the United Nations for settlement of any problem which might affect their peace and security...
...clarity of our vision...
...If the Kremlin continues these tactics at tie Moscow Conference, it will serve farther to solidify world opinion against her...
...Probabilities of a complete breakdown of the conference are quite strong...
...When Hitlerian Germsny rose lo make a second German bid for world domination, it was iueviialdv Britain which was the first to accept the challenge...
...Rut bv this time the US was quicker In assume its share ol irsponsibililv...
...Bfeatians the one opportunity they are locking—to break with Washington and lecuse Americans of going bark on ther terms agreed to by our agents...
...If Marshall before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday had Mid one word which inferred that he did not fully back the agreements worked Mt by his predecessor, it was considered of the strategists in the State Department that this would have given (hi...
...Kmea and I'slestine...
...It lacks the necssatry resources...
...The regime which look the lead in international development during these past two centuries was imperialistic...
...His job at Moscow, it is believed here, will be both long-drawnout and difficult...
...the problem of Palestine in which the While House has 0«'»me deeply involved, and many loser dilemmas confront the American people...
...In the Assembly of the League of Nations the small powers sat side by side with the great...
...Delegates of...
...Byrnes frankly admitted that the Italian and Balkan peace treaties were "unsatisfactory" from many points of view...
...The I 'lilted States Senate is iu ibis instance the hi«li court of American public opinion, linhcard al the Foreign Ministers Conference*, public opinion ¦ ill now be heard in the Senate, whose concurrence by a two-thirds majority is required before the United Stales can officially become a party lo a treaty...
...We rnuet constantly hear in mind that the two things are not disconnected...
...Nationals of Yugoslavia were daily moving into th/t city," he said...
...By JONATHAN STOUT WASHINGTON, D. C—Just lief ore taking off for Moscow, where the Foreign Ministeis Conference begins work on the German and 'Austrian treaties on Monday, Secretary of State George Marshall and his predecessor iu office...
...And Byrnes asked the Senate to ratify that...
...That Marshall and Byrnes should have urged ratification was expected...
...In effect, it would mean that the United States and Britain would withdraw their forces from Italy, leaving the latter completely defenseless before Tito and his standing army of 600,000...
...And- this is it The opportunity is at hand, and the issue is shaped to fit it...
...The unsatisfactory nature of the peat e^lrcatiea, plus •he problems of Greece, Chins...
...After the epic struggle between Britain and France during the 17th and Kith centuries, il was Great Britain which look the lead in keeping the world in order...
...Bl.AI I If I I, i ilk of peace and law and order through international organization Moods the aii waves and press...
...The very basis of this system of international existence has been contrary lo the democratic principles which we have developed within our domestic life...
...Now Russia and lier satellites are on one side, Britain and the United States, with like-minded friends, on the other...
...The Stalin Government is not merely s competitor for world dominstion...
...In short, America'* diplomat* have failed to bring home the kind of bacon the taste of of the American people finds palatable, Oner the public examination of this failtiN- is begun, it will not be possible to stop or confine it...
...One, that they represent "an important although limited step in the direction of the restoration of peace, of order and of stability...
...The confluence of the tides of woiid conflict and chaos have brought together a number of pressing problems demanding the attention ol the American people...
...But he urged immediate ratification, nevertheless, on two grounds...
...What then?—has been the question...
...A disarmed Italy could not stop them...
...Hither the US will step Into the breach, or the democratic West will lose by default...
...But great wars which have become geometrically rnoie destructive have been an inevitable concomitant...
...The people of the world and many ol the governments hope for peace and honestly work toward peace But what we actually face is something precisely contrary lo what we want...
...Korea and Palestine, are the outward evidences of a foreign policy that has failed to realize the idesls and aspirations of the American people...
...Russia will fill the vat mi in...
...the crumbling state of Chins in which General Marshall said American policy had failed...
...But if the Russians are given an opening whereby to place the blame on the United States, it would delight them by giving them an "out" while at the tamo , time strengthening their worldwide propaganda campaign which preposterously accuses America of seeking imperialist world domination...
...Bat, in the process of their appearance More the Senate committee, they ;n.!iHetty threw a shaft of light on w"ta* asj gone wrong in ^meriran f.meign MBcy, on why, throughout the world, •teocracy is being harried and rhivviel af the totalitariansm of the Kremlin Secretary Marshall urged immediate ratification of the treaties on two (pounds...
...We are asked to support the UN and at (he same time to assume the leadership In an .oldfashioned power conflict...
...They know that in the past the world community has been policed either by one preponderant power or by two or three governments which have achieved some sort of balance...
...Progressive people everywhere have long Worked for the dav when this sort ol international hossism can end...
...The Russians are going to bat with two •trikes on them already in world opinion, which is awfully tired of Russian evasion, obstruction and double-dealing...
...Involved in a crisis at home, it must reduce its commitments abroad...
...The opening of the debates on the Italian, Hungaiian, Rumanian and Bulgarian peace treaties means, therefore, the opening of an examination of American f»rrig» policy in Greece, Chins...
...Yet at the very lime when the UN is getting under way, we see things happening in London snd Washington which it'oiinil us that instead of being in the new world of UN, we are still firmly planted in the old world of the big stick and the balance of power...
...But we are morally and politically unpreparedi For many of our citizens the situation is a puzzling one...
...The foreign Ministers' deputies, who have been exploring the avenues of agreement, so far have not been able to agree on a tingle point...
...In the Senate, it is not the Administration nm il* Stat* Department which is in the driver's fttt Leading Republicans in the Senate jMlva been' awaiting an opportunity to effect a revision in our foreign policy...
...American public opinion, which was excluded from making itself felt in the deliberations that produced the peace treaties for Italy and the three others, has been awaiting the opportunity lo ask what happened to the covenant of the Atlantic Charter and the high principles of international morality, justice and peace which the sovereign signers ol thai shining document promised the war-weary, strife-weary peoples of the world...
...countries confer and attempt to legislate in the various bodies ol the United Nations...
...Byrnes aad Marshall could hardly have done otherwise than plead for ratification...
...Tor build this sort ol an organization into a world government which can replace the old big-power domination is the widely-worshiped dream of mankind...
...With the world in its present perilous situation, the British Government frankly acknowledges that H is no longer able to carry the burden 'which it has shouldered for centuries...
...In that paragraph Byrnes fully revealed the methods of Soviet diplomacy and the helplessness of American diplomacy t<» cope with bluff, threat and intimidation...
...Former Secretary Byrnes was in some respects franker than Secretary Marshall, and in some ways weaker...
...The Greek problem, suddeutlv thrust into America's lap...
...And we can only speculate at to the result...
Vol. 30 • March 1947 • No. 10
