SAN FRANCISCO.

Evening Star, Issue 25469, 27 April 1945, Page 4

SAN FRANCISCO.

The long-awaited San Francisco Conference has begun with United Nations delegates joined to draw up a, charter that, it is hoped, will see lasting peace in this war-weary world. The issue is momentous, for it resolves itself into little less than the saving of humanity from completo disaster. Failure to achieve the basis of a peace that shall endure will lay the world open to another war which, in President Truman's words, will " ultimately crush civilisation. We still have the choice between alternatives —the continuation of international chaos or the re-establishment of a world organisation for the enforcement of peace." The problems are great, but each and every one must be surmounted, or unborn generations will know of turmoil the terrors of which are beyond the imagination fully to conceive. The beginning of these terrors can be seen in the rocket and robot bombs, undeveloped infants as yet. In any future assault by an aggressor nation the mistakes of this war will not be repeated. It will not be the small nations that will be first attacked. The United States Secretary of State, Mr E. R. Stettinius, has written: "In this war we were attacked last by the aggressors, and we have been able to fight them far from our own soil. The range of the aeroplane and the new weapons already developed make certain_ that ™nv+ time—if we permit a next time—-

the devastation of war will be brought to our own homes and our own soil. Next time—if we permit a next time—it is likely that the United States will be attacked first, not last, by an aggressor nation." To avoid this, and all that it would mean to civilisation if the Powers that have staved off a world catastrophe were the first to yo under in another war, the peoples of all nations must plan and develop an organised peace that will really work. 1 To the problems ahead there is one small pointer in the report of the conference opening;—the difficulty of obtaining a form of prayer acceptable and Understandable by all. A small thing—to many vastly important—but significant. The plans that will be discussed during the session were formulated at Dumbarton Oaks and were generally acclaimed. The aim of the peace organisation that is to be established at this conference is twofold: "To prevent and suppress war, and to make peace constantly stronger by developing closer, more friendly and mutually profitable relations among the member nations." Unity and cooperation on the part of every person, in every country, not merely on the part of elected leaders, are essentia] to ensure the organisation's success. Problems of frontiers, minorities, and political and religious difference must be controlled to the common good. It is unfortunate that the conference begins with the Polish question still unsettled, and it would seem that the root of the trouble lies with the existing London Polish Government, which will heed no arguments or advice. The differences have led to non-Polish representation, a _ regrettable state of affairs as, technically at least, it was through British and French pledges to Poland that the war began. There is still distrust between the Russians and the Poles ,in exile, and distrust is one of the things that must be completely subjugated before the Dumbarton Oaks plans can become reality. But, next to Marshal Stalin himself, the Soviet is represented by its most able diplomaj;, and that should indicate Russian sincerity of purpose in working towards the common ideal which inspired the_ San Francisco meeting. The imperative need of the world is peace, and if this need dominates the delegates to the exclusion of minor matters the conference should achieve j its great goal.