INTERNATIONAL PROBLEMS

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25608, 24 September 1948, Page 2

INTERNATIONAL PROBLEMS

ADDRESS BY PROFESSOR I. L. G. SUTHERLAND

“The Task of International Organisation” was the subject of the third in the series of Ensom lectures, whicn was- given by Professor I. L. G. Sutherland to the Workers’ Education Association.

The Ensom lectures, which are given each year on international problems, were made possible by a bequest of the late Mrs Sarah Ann Ensom. International organisation was the most important subject in the world to-day, Professor Sutherland said. It had been said that just as man spent the nineteenth century in thinking nationally, so he must spend the twentieth century in learning to think in international terms, and in building up the forms of an international organisation and society. “The world has been materially internationalised,” said Professor Sutherland. “Through the work of scientists and engineers, the world, from a mechanical and material point of view, has become one. In a sense it has altered in size. Distances that formerly kept the nations of mankind apart have virtually been abolished. The brotherhood of nations is now a fact, and a very complicated fact.” For good or ill, men could now get from pnb end of the world to the other in two or three days. Men’s minds were now in contact with one another in new and intimate. way§ which had formerly been inconceivable. "Isolation, and security through isolation have gone; but the old and profound distances between men’s minds remain,” said Professor Sutherland. "Ideological gaps have widened. The new nearness of physical communication has suddenly been superimposed on the old distances and lack of understanding between the men and women of different nations.” There were now global communications and contacts but, as yet. there was no global man. Great Effort by Man Needed Socially and politically, and in men’s minds there had been no parallel change comparable with the physical and material changes which had been brought about by the scientists and engineers, Professor Sutherland said. “I believe it is coming but it is coming very gradually. It will need the greatest intellectual, emotional, and moral effort that man has had to make in the whole of his long history. Atomic and biological warfare give a new and terrible urgency to the task of international organisation.” The United Nations represented an attempt at such a social or political adjustment to our changed world. Not even its most enthusiastic supporters could claim complete success for it, or be completely satisfied with its first three years; but it did represent a big achievement. “Apart from some brave theories, it’s all we’ve got so far,” said. Professor Sutherland. "Outside of it, at the present time, are naked power politics and chaos.” Professor Sutherland emphasised the necessity to get the United Nations and its work into proper perspective and to recognise the limitations necessary in the Charter. It had been pointed out by the Secretary-General of the United Nations (Mr Trygve Lie) that the organisation was one of clearly limited powers, and not a world government

"Wherever one starts in world politics to-day one sooner or later comes up against the situation of the United States versus the Soviet Union. I see little likelihood of this situation becoming less significant,” Professor Sutherland said. One hopeful sign was that both the United States and the Soviet Union were in the United Nations. This was not the case in the League of Nations. The work of the United Nations had been greatly hampered by the fact that the peace treaties between the Allies and Germany and Japan had not yet been written. "Must Make the Best of U.N.” Many persons who were interested in international organisation were so dissatisfied with the United Nations that they wanted to reform it or even to by-pass it. said Professor Sutherland. He briefly outlined the aims for world government of various groups such as the World Federalists, who in the words of some Chicago scholars claimed that "The age of nations must end, and the era of humanity begin.” ‘‘l*am a believer in world government, but the question is one of timing, and practical politics at the present moment,” he added. “We must make the most of what we have at the present time, which is the United Nations. We’ve got to realise the practical issue at present, and the urgency of the international situation. "In the long run, if war does not come, we may find that the subsidiary or functional, organisations attached to the United Nations will be the most effective. We hear. I think, far too little about the work being doni by these specialised agencies such as UNESCO, the Social and Economic Council, and the World Health Organisation. "I think we are all inclined to feel that the issues of international organisation at present are so vast that the individual does not. and cannot, count. It requires a little effort of the imagination to see that this is not true.” said Professor Sutherland. He emphasised the importance of the work of voluntary organisations like the United Nations Association. “It is up to every individual to take a deep interest in United Nations affairs.” he said. "The United Nations needs the support of public opinion in every country. It is all too easy to be sceptical and cynical about what it has done. We should try to get things into better perspective and to see that, in spite of divisions, air the major Powers are in the United Nations, and that on the practical and functional side it has in its first three years achieved very significant results.