A FOREIGN POLICY FOR THE NEW YEAR
Howard, Harry Paxton
A Foreign Policy For The New Year By HARRY PAXTON HOWARD Long ago God dreamed a dream Of peace, good will to men. He knows men will remember . And dream his dream again. THE spirit of the...
...Jewish, Moslem, and Christian leaders gathered in Jerusalem to discuss an Anglo-American announcement that the fate of Palestine was henceforth to be in the hands of the people of that country, through a free and democratic republic with equal rights to all and special privileges to none...
...Could he find them at this hour ? Agreeably enough, he did find them...
...Their most important and profitable trade and investments have always been with us and with their Western neighbors, not with their colonies...
...To desperate and hopeless men and women came the news that there would be food today, work would soon be resumed in some factories, and the task of rebuilding their shattered homes and lives would soon begin...
...Things were to be decided on the basis of established principles of justice, not on the basis of comparative strength and ability at propaganda falsehoods...
...They knew it all along, of course...
...I've heard from almost every Senator and Representative...
...Men would come to work the following day, amazed and perhaps appalled at their handiwork...
...Neighbors who seldom speak are wishing one another the season's greetings...
...In Europe and in Asia, more families know starvation than jubilation this holiday season...
...Hindus, Moslems, and Untouchables, Bengali and Punjabi and Pathans, discussed the new British announcement that it was withdrawing its forces from India but that it would supply arms to no single group there...
...Decisions were by majority rule, and no government could vote in a dispute to which it was itself a party...
...He had had a joyous New Year's Eve with his family and some old friends, and was chatting gaily as the ¦ chimes sounded the advent of New Year's Day...
...Any province, region, or racial or tribal group that desired and voted fbr autonomy could have it...
...Not everything could be done in 24 hours...
...There and elsewhere, representatives of native movements conferred cautiously but amicably with British and American authorities, who were prepared to recognize their full right to democratic self-government on a basis of equality with other peoples...
...those on the roads were supplied with food...
...Irresponsible action was prevented by specific definition of aggression, and by the giving of authority to the International Court...
...American-supplied bombs may be falling on Chinese and Indo-Chinese and Indonesian cities— our Holiday gifts to Asia, which gave us the religion most of us cherish...
...Peace treaties were made in relation to generally established and accepted principles of democratic justice...
...No bombs were dropped on Chinese cities and towns that day...
...WHAT was happening in Europe and in Asia seemed remote to many Americans...
...He had had strange and wonderful dreams, in which he had been playing the part of an earnest seeker after freedom, comfort, and peace for his people and for the world...
...They were curious, they seemed to imply new directives, changes in policy in one field after another...
...The news brought him up with a shock...
...Suppose they did not take a holiday...
...The principles laid down were applicable to all, regardless of race, nationality, or previous condition of servitude...
...Suppose they were to adopt, honestly and earnestly, a policy of "Peace on Earth...
...IT was already morning in the Far East...
...THE President had a strange feeling that night...
...The federal government finally chosen would be the governing authority of China, its powers limited only by the requirements of the world organization for peace...
...There are well-filled larders and brightly decorated homes...
...Another man spoke...
...Their experts had suddenly produced statistical tables showing that the military and naval costs of Empire were many times as great as their entire income from their colonies...
...It is a week for peace and good will...
...We had never had such directives...
...For once they would have broken the terrible chain of greed, power-politics, chicanery, falsehood, racism, hatred, and callousness which bound them to the evil cycle of past years...
...Finally one spoke: "I guess we knew about it all along...
...Urged by some unaccountable feeling, they had themselves come down to their offices at midnight...
...The people were to have an opportunity to feed and clothe and house themselves, to choose and make effective their own democratic government, to revive and expand their great co-operative network in connection with other economic groups throughout the world...
...They looked them over, sometimes with evident surprise...
...We had all our departments and specialists and experts and facts...
...Suppose they decided, beginning on the first minute of New Year's Day, to devote themselves for 24 hours to preparatory ¦teps for a new world...
...New directives had gone out...
...But we just carried on as usual...
...Everywhere an earnest attempt was seen to resume normal economic life, to re-establish production and security, to create instead of destroy...
...While the common people slept, the lights burned brightly in Government offices and military and naval stations throughout the world...
...It was a remarkable organization—and it worked...
...The terrible "Potsdammerung," which had planned the deliberate murder of millions and the permanent reduction to sub-human existence of tens of millions, was ended...
...These steps might be such as to be irrevocable...
...It had certain resemblances to the United Nations Organization, but the one-State "veto power" of Security Council members had been done away with...
...But as he read them over, he saw with pleased surprise that they were good, reasonable...
...The United States, was a full participant in the Organization...
...Theirs would be the honest and humble acceptance of their share in the guilt and the responsibility, and the sincere determination to right the wrongs which had been done and were . being done to millions of helpless, humble persons in the farthest corners of the earth...
...We were on the inside on everything...
...Theirs would not be the public disavowal of their own acts: "I wash my hands of this blood...
...In Tokyo, they had already carried from the subways the bodies , of the children who had starved there the night befor...
...But there was a strange change in Europe itself, and among the Jews there...
...Good Will to Men...
...To the still surviving skeletons came buses and trucks with warm food...
...Good Will to Men...
...they must have been theirs...
...So it may be quite suitable for them to take a holiday from their usual activities...
...There was to be food, and responsible representative government, and rebuilding of homes and towns...
...People should return peaceably to their homes, where possible, and resume work...
...As soon as they got the 'peace and good will' idea the economic balance-sheet became clear...
...How did we find the way out for all these things ?" They were silent...
...But they just hadn't thought of it that way...
...But he would have to talk about this with his chiefs...
...For once they would have acted in public life as most of them act in their private lives— as decent, kindly, honorable human beings...
...We knew what was going on...
...And as soon as we started out on that track, the rest was easy...
...Theirs would not be the organization of vast lynching parties to fix upon former associates the crimes in which they themselves had once participated...
...You know," said another, "everything was happening so fast that I wasn't even surprised when London and Paris called up to wish me r'A Happy New Year" and tell me they'd decided to chuck their colonial liabilities...
...The following day, refreshed and inspired, they can return to their customary tasks in the customary way—the way which has brought the world to the desperate pass of^today...
...What's Congress going to say about all this ?" he asked...
...The vast deportations of helpless persons from their homes were ended...
...Together with the Famine Relief Commission and the UNRRA would come responsible representatives of the International Civil Liberties Union, to see that democracy would be a reality and not a sham...
...At least for once in the year, there are more smiles and laughter and good will than frowns and anxiety and scheming...
...And though much of it was on the front pages of newspapers that day and the next, the biggest headlines went to the new international organization to preserve peace...
...Suppose they were really to act in this spirit...
...But they were good, reasonable...
...Somehow he felt an irresistible urge to go to his office...
...THE spirit of the Christmas-New Year's holiday season is among us...
...Every one starts off with 'Congratulations!' And every one winds up with 'A Happy New Year I' And God bless you V...
...And the orders went out...
...If they or other peoples needed aid in the establishment of new and free institutions, they could have it from Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, or other peace-loving, freedom-loving peoples...
...There he found papers on his desk, awaiting his signature...
...Washington had ceased "passing the buck" to Britain...
...The President smiled...
...DAILY the newspapers and magazines tell us of the horror and misery and famine and slavery in ever-widening areas of the earth...
...Democratic elections were to start in every village, town, and city as soon as neutral, non-partisan supervisory committees could be present...
...There were "new directives...
...ELSEWHERE throughout Asia the strange Holiday went on...
...But we'd never thought of using them for such purposes...
...It was the "Parliament of Man—the Federation of the World...
...it was for all men—and it was for women also...
...There are joy and happiness in millions of families...
...Yes, the suggestions were theirs...
...How did we do it...
...It was for the children: as for one who offended against one of these, it were better that a millstone be tied around his neck and he be cast into the sea...
...But they would look it over, and might decide that it was good...
...Boys are coming back from overseas wars...
...Ordinarily I would say they've gone nuts...
...Criminal gangs—in or out of uniform, and regardless of whieh uniform—were to be sharply curbed, and government by law established...
...Most of us are having turkey—¦ if we want it...
...What happened...
...And this would be the greatest revolution in the history of our troubled earth...
...But definite steps could be made, laying a new basis for human life and human relations...
...All hostilities were ceasing immediately, with all forces and officials remaining where they were at the moment...
...Agents of the Famine Relief Commission would soon be in every distressed area, giving aid and co-operation regardless of politics...
...2 the President awakened with a most curious feeling...
...Supreme authority, which was limited to the requirements for the effective prevention of war, was vested in the General Assembly or International Parliament...
...We suddenly began to see things in terms of establishing peace on earth, and practicing good will to men...
...Then, somehow, we got a new slant...
...He tuned in on the radio...
...It was not for some men...
...Theirs would not be the evasion of blame, and the shifting of responsibility upon the shoulders of others...
...His gospel, as we know it, was in essence a simple one: "Peace on Earth...
...The Viceroy's power was being abolished...
...The origin of the holidays lies in the folk-lore and traditions of Europe, but to most persons today it is identified with the inspiring story of an inspired Jew who died upon a cross—for all humankind...
...The transoceanic telephones were busy that night...
...Most Government leaders of Christian lands are taking a holiday...
...The United States, Canada, Brazil, Ethiopia, and other fertile countries were opening their doors to hundreds of thousands of Jewish unfortunates who wished forever to leave and forget Europe...
...No bombs were dropped in Indo-China or in Indonesia...
...And it was for the old, the halt, the lame, the weak, and the erring as for the strong and righteous...
...That's the strangest part of this whole business...
...The Indian Parliament could carry on itself—or could formulate a new constitution based upon Equal Treatment and the Rights of Man, representative of all Indians who desired to adhere to it...
...he asked...
...ON the morning of Jan...
...Late in the afternoon some planes came over, but dropped only leaflets^ And these, read with perplexity, unbelief, but strange hope, said that the war in China was ended...
...He had his chiefs in to breakfast...
Vol. 9 • December 1945 • No. 52
