FORCE OF PUBLIC OPINION

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25205, 9 June 1947, Page 3

FORCE OF PUBLIC OPINION

SUCCESS OF UNITED NATIONS UNDERSTANDING AMONG PEOPLES “Now, as never before, the preservation of peace depends on the common People of the world, on the man-in-the-street, on you and me. You and I, as ordinary citizens of one small coun- f try must play our part in working the 1 United Nations, and take our share in ! the blame if it doesn’t work. Its success or failure isn’t entirely outside; our control like the motion of some' dreadful star. It depends to some ex- i tent, however slight, upon our attitude I towards it,” said Dr. C. E. Beeby, | Director of Education, in a national broadcast last evening. “We are not yet as skilled in waging, peace as we are in waging war.’ In fact, we are only just beginning to! realise dimly that peace is as positive; a state as war and has to be waged I with all the resources and all the manpower at the disposal of the nations. “There are, of course, certain obvi-; ous things that anyone can do, and as the organisations take shape there will be more demands on us. One of, the activities of this United NationsWeek is a drive by CORSO for fundsfor famine relief. It is mockery to' talk of one world while some of it] is well-fed and some starving, and it' is in everybody’s power to buy some; small share in the world’s peace in j this way, UNESCO. United Nations, Educational, Scientific and Cultural 1 Organisation, is also starting from Paris a world-wide appeal for money and materials for the educational rehabilitation of war-devastated countries. I know a little about this at first hand, and I can assure you that the need is only a little less urgent and real than the need for food. Millions of children throughout the war-devas-1 tated areas are Without proper edu-, cation, many of them without any edu-| cation at all. without even the barest necessities, pencils, paper, chalk, and books. And that in countries where < before the war children had about the same educational opportunities that yours and mine have now. It doesn’t take much imagination to see how the seeds of future wars can lie in the ignorance and bitterness that must result if aid cannot be given and : given quickly.

More Than Money “But we can’t get rid of our personal responsibility for the peace of the world by dropping a coin in a col-lecting-box. There’s more to it than that. I am convinced that one of the reasons the League of Nations failed is that the common people of the world never really understood it, and so were never ready to insist that it should be backed to the limit. I believe one of the first duties 6i every man and woman is to try to understand the United Nations ? to understand the attitudes of mind of the countries that make it up, and to do his best to see what everyone else understands too. “I am not for a moment suggesting that it is the duty of every citizen to have a blind faith in the United Nations and its satellites or for e y®ry country on the strength of that faith straightway to beat its swords into ploughshares. Far from it. Like all human institutions the United Nations is full of imperfections. But we have an obligation to try to understand its difficulties and to back to the limit such of its activities as we consider worthy of support. After all, in the democracies of the world the man in the polling booth has the final say, and politicians, national and international, are very sensitive to public opinion. We are the public, and our opinions on the United Nations do count. “An understanding of the United Nations Organisation involves an understanding of the countries that make it up and of the people that in turn make up those countries. Military strategists seem to agree that to wage war against another nation you must known how the minds of its people work. In the preserving of peace it would seem infinitely more important. That, I imagine, is one of the chief purposes behind the programme of this United Nations Week. For peoples are understood not only through their speeches, newspapers, and books, but through their science, their music, their drama, their films, and their art. “Wars are caused by other things besides lack of understanding, and nobody imagines that peace will come just by understanding other peoples better. I don’t even believe that to understand all is necessarily to forgive all. We certainly can disagree strongly with people we understand thoroughly. The forces ,that operate in the world of international affairs are strong to complex and not always benevolent- There is a very real and necessarv place for the work of experts on military matters, finance, health, agriculture, education and labour; much of it may be above the head of the man in the street. But with him lies the final responsibility for creating what someone has called the ‘climate’ of public opinion, without which the complex international organisations will not grow healthily. Mere understanding between peoples will not of itself bring peace, but lasting peace will never come without understanding. If we can do nothing else, you and I can at least try to understand.”