CAUSE OF PEACE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 89, Issue 287, 5 December 1945, Page 5

CAUSE OF PEACE

NEED FOR STUBBORN REALISM “PRAVDA” CRITICISES BEVIN Recd. 6 p.m. London, Dec. 3. The suggestions by the Foreign Secretary, Mr. Bevin, for a directlyelected world assembly are criticised by the Russian Communist Party organ “Pravda.” Much is being said, it says, about a new world organisation which would safeguard the world from the atomic bomb and from war—a world Parliament or world Government to which the peoples would have to surrender to some extent their national sovereignty. One had heard suggestions about revision of the United Nations’ Charter with the aim of restricting the national sovereignty of its principal participants, the Great Powers, for the sake of consolidating confidence among the peoples. This argument was “not very convincing.” “One cannot get away from the fact that under the cloak of preaching universal confidence the very subi stance of the United Nations’ Charter |is based on the co-operation, in the i first place, of the Great Powers,” says I “Pravda.” “While the charter was still being worked out attempts were made to undermine the accord of the Great Powers, on the pretext of defending democratic principles within an international organisation. Their attempts failed. Now they are being revived.” “Pravda” also stated: “Much patient and persistent effort is still needed to consolidate the transitional period from war to peace. The Soviet peQple are blamed for their stubborn realism. These words, addressed to us, were uttered in the House of I Commons. ( Brigadier Fitzroy Macllean, in the foreign affairs debate on I November 22, said that the Russian I foreign policy “is based on hardheaded realism and a high sense of their national interest.’’) They are not insulting words and we accept them as a compliment. We think that stubborn realism is now more important for the cause of peace than the brightest dreams.”