FIRST AIDS FOR SICK NATIONS

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 80, 2 October 1945, Page 6

FIRST AIDS FOR SICK NATIONS

The post-war world today is not unlike the scene that follows a railway accident. ,Many of the wounds cannot be healed in a day, but first aid is doing what is obvious—a few stitches here, a few stitches there, and some anaesthetic. Sometimes the doctors are not in agreement even over first-aid methods. Such lack of agreement is most noticeable in international " discussions—examples, the Foreign Ministers' Council, and the Anglo-American economic negotiations —but it is also found in intranational as well as in international affairs; and that is why Mr. Richard Law (Conservative Opposition) can criticise the new British Labour Government for sins of omission, such as "fumbling over demobilisation." But any slowness to deal with difficult problems by the leading governments—whether domestic problems or international problems, which often interlock —is due far more to the inherent and immediate difficulties of the post-war world than to any lack of Governmental competence or of the will to achieve. What is called winning the peace is in some respects more difficult than —and in all respects quite different from —winning the war. Hitler's initiation and prolonging of a worldshaking struggle has gravely endangered—as he fully anticipated—all attempts to re-create the world on lines that are economic and just. And Japan's abrupt ending of the war precipitated the shock of the aftermath- at a time when Allied Governments had inadequately rehearsed the post-war drama. As a result, neither within the nations, nor internationally, does reconstruction run smoothly. Of the Big Three, the two democratic Governments, responsive to public impressions ■ that may be temporary, have a terrific task. If they are forced to bargain, they cannot also get down •to the job, and the, job itself is heavy. Governments and Departments of Governments, struggling to get things done, do not know whether to apologise for what is not achieved —which would appear to be a confession of weakness—or to hide behind silence or evasion, which puzzles the people. This very day, for instance, it is radioed that the Council of Foreign Ministers had a long debate on "the question whether its communique should be long and explanatory, or brief and non-committal."

"I came, I saw, I failed" would be an impossible phrase, even for a Caesar. It would also be a phrase lacking in correctness. Many failures to agree are temporary, for the reasons that make present agreement impossible. Where a bargaining spirit exists, and where there are no established standards of trading, very little trading will be done. The markets themselves illustrate the difficulties of international adjustments, for the markets have lost, and cannot for some time re-establish, many of the standard values that, in pre-war times, were unquestioned. Where there are no reliable standards, and therefore no guides to the immediate future, individuals, Governments, and international conferences hesitate to be self-committal. In international trade, who knows where the point of balance between plantation rubber and synthetic rubber is to be found? Who knows what adventures are ahead of. some of the United States war industries, as well as of the pound sterling? Who knows where strategic values will be stabilised ultimately under the influence of scientific warinvention and new military technology, and who knows what shifts in geopolitics and in the values of strategic waterways, islands, and bases may eventually result? Bargaining conferences and international negotiations are liable to move slowly at the best of times; they can be doubly slow when' the values they trade in are unknown or are unstable. Concerning the Foreign Ministers' Council, among the cabled opinions is one to the effect that, viewed as a conference, it "was hurriedly summoned and was ill prepared; the Ministers' were tired; and things will be better in November lor when the next series of meetings is held." The lack of preparation complained of will be understood if the Council meetings are regarded as first aid after a shocking accident. First aid may make mistakes either by not daring or by daring too much. If the Foreign Ministers' Council represents first aid, so did the San Francisco Conference. Its- beginnings were pre-atomic. History will see both these events against the background of a past which today is our quite unknown future. Considering the inherent difficulties of the world at this moment, the San Francisco Conference, the Council of Foreign Ministers, and the sterling-dollar talks are normal events.

In some quarters astonishment has been expressed at the wide range of Russian interests. Russia is said to be interested in the Mediterranean and Red Seas, in the Persian Gulf, and in how the occupation of Japan proceeds. While so many open questions remain in the world, where is there any subject in which Russia, or Britain, or America can confess to be uninterested? So long as the earth is governed by a triumvirate, the triumvirs will certainly be competitive, but that will not prevent their being co-operative. Competition is inherent in the whole existing circumstances, and none of the Big Three is likely to purposely contract - himself out of some interest in whatever is going. But the important fact is not whether competition exists, but whether co-operation is the predominant consideration. So long as the triumvirate finds that its greatest interest is peace—and Hitler and Tojo have demonstrated that fact very vividly—co-operation in peace will continue, slowly, perhaps even reluctantly, but at the same time steadily and successfully, under the compelling influence that the object lessons of years of world-struggle have supplied.