Greymouth Evening Star. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1948. Why UNO Will Not Work

Greymouth Evening Star, 15 October 1948, Page 4

Greymouth Evening Star. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1948. Why UNO Will Not Work

IT. is becoming increasingly clear that the 1 reference of the Berlin dispute to the United Nations is unlikely to produce any tangible result. Indeed, the new world organisation is proving itself as impotent as the League of Nations. The fact is that, the assumptions on which the United Nations Charter was drafted have been falsified by the post-war years. Essentially, it was. assumed that the members of the organisation, and particularly the Great Powers, however they might differ about details, would be united in their purpose to construct out of the rubble and confusion the Axis had left behind an enduring international order and would therefore rapidly conclude peace treaties with the defeated countries. The mounting antagonism between East and West, which menaces the maintenance of the present uneasy peace, undermines the whole purpose for which the United Nations was instituted. It is true that in the case of Palestine a measure of success hiay legitimately be claimed where there would certainly be war between Jews and Arabs. Even, here, however, the problem is by no means settled. In other directions. such as the Atomic Commission and the provision of armed forces called for by Article 43 of the Charter, no progress has been made.

There will be few to disagree with the contention that a prerequisite to the establishment of international, security is a German settlement. This is indeed essential if the United Nations is io recover the strength and authority to exert a decisive influence for the preservation of peace. As long as the Eastern and Western Powers glare at each other across a prostrate Germany, it is idle to suppose that elsewhere confidence can bq restored and prosperity be brought back to now ira poverisited populations. The basic trouble with the United Nations will not be mended by tinkering with the Charter. It is true that, in actual operation, the use of the veto has far exceeded what was envisaged, and that, for instance, in the ease 01. the Balkans Commission the United Nations has been deliberately flouted by certain of the Communist States. Even so, the tact remains that the powers contained in the Charter would have sufficed to deal with every situation that, has arisen if they had been invoked. That they have not been invoked is due, not to any inadequacy in them, but to divided purposes among the Great Powers themselves.

The basic division is that between Democracy and Communism or .Red Fascism. The Great Powers are the United Nations, and unless they are as one on essentials it cannot work. And it is'no use deluding ourselves that it can. To ignore this basic division would be to indulge in the sort of wishful thinking that made the League of Nations so melancholy a failure —and to court disaster. So long as Prussia pursues her aggressive policy, so long as she continues to break international agreements at will, the United Nations will be powerless. The only possible conclusion is that the one hope of preserving peace lies in strength. And, we may well ask ourselves, what "strength can we possibly have when our Government is tender of the Communists and “fellow-travellers” who menace our country from within? It/ 8 dangerous to play with fire. A prerequisite of strong defence is a sound and strong Government. We have not got it.