The Press TUESDAY, MAY 15, 1945. Mr Churchill’s Charge

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24566, 15 May 1945, Page 4

The Press TUESDAY, MAY 15, 1945. Mr Churchill’s Charge

In the whole of Mr Churchill’s world broadcast, every sentence of it impressive, nothing is more solemnly impressive than the charge he lays upon the Powers whose victory in Europe is complete.

We seek nothing for ourselves, but must make sure that the causes for which we fought find recognition at the peace table in fact as well as in words, and that the World Organisation which the United Nations are creating at San Francisco does not become an idle name—a shield for the strong and a mockery for the weak. It is the victors' who must search their hearts and be worthy of the immense forces they wield.

It will hardly be doubted that Mr Churchill intended to express more than a hope for the practical success of the San Francisco conference. This was. his strong and timely summons to it. For months, now, most of all in the United States but also in Britain and beyond, anxiety has been deepened by evidence that the principles to which the Allies were pledged, and to which their war aims were to conform, were being compromised. Reports gained currency that at Teheran the world had been blocked into spheres of political influence. They were never squarely denied; and the course of events was consistent with their truth. ‘ Again, towards the end of last year Mr Roosevelt disturbed American public opinion by speaking of the Atlantic Charter as if its importance were academic rather than practical—that of one more among the many documents in which history records human purposes and dreams; not necessarily that of one which must, if human conviction and effort have any avail, mark a new stage in human achievement. It has not been sufficiently well noted that, in the debates shortly afterwards on Mr Roosevelt’s six proposed appointments to the State Department, opposition was led, not by isolationists, but by previously steady supporters of the President. Their object was to make.the most emphatic possible plea for the .appointment of men known to be firm and courageous exponents of the Atlantic Charter principles. Again, while the Dumbarton Oaks draft has-been almost universally welcomed as a realistic attempt to base the security of small nations as well as great on the responsible use of power, the small nations have been quick to detect that the emphasis falls more on power than on responsibility; and that the draft does not even declare’ that the* responsibility to be. discharged by those who Hold the power is to be first and last the responsibility' -for maintaining & moral and just international order. So far, the conference has produced argument over the machinery and the initiative.„of power; it has not restored the faith that can readily accept the conditions in which the Big Five claim ’to be its trustees. The amendments proposed by China, for example, Will provide one occasion to revise it; the pirpamblq -and declarations being drafted Jay.:Qeneraj Smuts will provide another. But Mr Churchill’s charge to the United Nations anticipates them. Its influence will be strong. The conference and ’ the world hive the greater hope because ofit.