TO PAVE WAY

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 42, 19 February 1943, Page 3

TO PAVE WAY

Allied Political Conference Being Organised

ACTION ON VITAL QUESTIONS

Rec. 10 a.m. NEW YORK, Feb. 18. The Washington correspondent of the Christian Science Monitor says that well-informed - circles understand that an all-in Allied political conference is being organised to pave the way for action on the following questions:— (1) The early establishment of a United Nations council to integrate the conduct of the war, with Britain, America, Russia and China taking the lead in deciding strategic policy. (2) The co-ordination of world-wide relief plans. (3) The creation of a council for post-war construction and development. (4) The development of civil aviation after the war. (5) The discussion of security in the Pacific, with particular reference to the recent proposal by the Secretary of the Navy, Colonel W. F. Knox, that America should acquire Pacific bases to prevent future Japanese aggression. (6) The submission of the Atlantic Charter and the Four Freedoms to a legislative council of all the United Nations as a cornerstone of foreign policy. A positive statement of America's intention to take an active part in post-war reconstruction and the maintenance of peace is advocated by the New York Times, which asks whether America, repeating 1918 will return to isolation, which hovers like a ghost over the day-to-day decisions of United Nations councils. It would be an act of statesmanship and a major contribution to winning the war if Congress now associated itself with President Roosevelt s pledge of American participation in, a peace guarantee after the war,' says the Times. "This could be achieved by the adoption by Congress of the Atlantic Charter as a formal expression of America's war objectives or by the adoption of a resolution modelled on that adopted by the Congress Republicans on February 8, pledging active Sicipation in the maintenance of peace after the war. Such action now could help to shorten the war and win a better peace."