Universal Foreign Policy Need of the Moment

Manawatu Times, Volume 70, Issue 267, 12 November 1945, Page 5

Universal Foreign Policy Need of the Moment

OVERRIDING INTERESTS OF WORLD CIVILISATION. Received Sunday, 11.30 p.m. WASHINGTON, Nov. 11. President Truman, speaking at the State dinner honouring Mr. Attlee said: “One of the great things about the British Empire is that when they have a foreign policy—and they always have one—the British people are behind that policy no matter which Government is in power. We are going at our conference prayerfully, and we are hoping that agreements and policies will come out of the conferences which will make the United Nations’ Organisation a living, moving, active programme." Mr. Attlee, replying, said: “What we need most of all is a universal foreign policy—a foreign policy that is directed not to any immediate aim of any particular country, but a foreign, policy that is conceived in the interest of all the world’s people. That does not mean that we should not take into account our particular differences, but it seems to me today that the overriding interests of world civilisation should come first. ’ ‘ Withqut referring to the atomic bomb Mr. Attlee said that scientific discoveries were transcending oceans. “We must not let anything rob us of our freedom and democracy," he added. “Rather we must try to see whether we cannot give all the nations that kind of security where, through long years on both sides of the Atlantic, we have worked up in practice that most difficult of all forms of government—democracy—about the only form of government that is worthy of free men." Mr. Attlee urged that in the discussions the parties should keep over in mind that what they were out for today was to try to devise a world policy of the common man. Mr. Truman said he hoped the United States could implement a foreign policy which would be the policy of the people of the United States and not the policy of any political party.