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Show .UNRRA Test of Sentiment For World Co-Operation Faith In Ideal Necessary to Continue Work Of Allied Relief Agency After Reports Of Early Difficulties. By BAUKHAGE I News Analyst and Commentator. I WNU Service, 1616 Eye Street, N.W., Washington, D. C. The forces in Washington battling for world co-operation are rinding the going tough. It is hard to get people to have faith in collective security when they witness such things as the breakdown of the for-I for-I eign ministers' conference in London, (Russia's reluctance to co-operate in !the Far East advisory commission, j Argentina's espousal of the ways of the dictators. At times it seems as though, internationally speaking, democracy de-mocracy were approaching the winter win-ter of its sorest discontent It is unfortunate that in the midst of this period of suspicion and anxi-ety, anxi-ety, a yes and no vote has to be j taken on a matter that may mean . life or death, and to that extent, (peace or anarchy, to hundreds of thousands of people in Europe. 1 refer to the 500 million dollar appropriation appro-priation for UNRRA which has been winding a precarious way through congress. x By the time these lines appear, that appropriation which congress previously authorized may have been granted. There has never been much doubt as to its final approval. But the danger lies in the effect of proposed reservations. This appropriation bill is con-' sidered a bell-wether. If it goes through unencu' bered, It may mean that other measures affecting our relations with other nations are fairly safe and that such isolationism isolation-ism as exists in the country (and, therefore, in congress) is less than one-third of the whole. It is true that there have been loud and emphatic demands that such knowledge as we possess concerning con-cerning the atom and its potentiality be kept strictly to ourselves even though scientists say it cannot be less than common knowledge even the "know-how" to turn it to military mili-tary or commercial use within a few years. But I believe that if you will submit to careful analysis the expressed sentiment of congress on this subjeqt, it would reveal a line-up which takes little consideration consider-ation of any international aspects of the use of atomic energy. In other words,, the viewpoints so far expressed ex-pressed have differed as to whether t this new force has been looked at as something to sell at home and j the question has been whether it be produced under state control or by ' private enterprise. The question of internationalizing the bomb has remained re-mained in the domain of theory. A look at the arguments for and against UNRRA and the reaction to them gives us a much clearer picture pic-ture of tendencies, isolationist or otherwise, of the arguer. 17. S. Support h Vital When a congressman casts his vote "aye" or "no" on the bill to appropriate the money for UNRRA he is not simply virtually voting aye or no on whether we help feed starving starv-ing Europe. If he votes no and the noes have it, there will be no UNRRA. True, all. contributing nations na-tions put In the same proportion of their national income 1 per cent but it so happens that 1 per cent of the national income of the United States is nearly three-quarters of the entire sum contributed. Your voter knows this. And he can't help realizing the UNRRA is symbolic of American participation in any world organization. Without this country's advice, consent and support, no world organization can exist. And likewise, with American support no nation can afford not to go along. Another thing that the congressional congression-al voter knows when he votes on UNRRA is that it is far from perfect. per-fect. He knows that the personnel, the efficiency, the standing of the organization or-ganization have improved tremendously tremen-dously in the last few months since It has been able to get the personnel person-nel it required, which it couldn't get before because of the manpower and brainpower shortage due to the war. But he knows it is still hampered by its polyglot nature and he has to have faith enough in its purpose to make him feel that the risk of fail-are fail-are is worth taking. Because UNRRA, like any international organization, or-ganization, is everybody's baby, it can easily become nobody's baby. ; Each nation has been only too ready to criticize it, always excluding their own representatives' functions, of course. UNRRA has suffered greatly great-ly from a poor press because th task it faced was well nigh impossible impossi-ble in wartime. The bad news, therefore, overbalanced overbal-anced the good news as far as reports re-ports of progress on the part of the active, contributing countries wert concerned. From the passive, recipient recipi-ent countries naturally there were plenty of complaints. These "sins of omission" were ballyhooed. The other side of the story was not. It was the sad and familiar tale oi priorities, a story many a business man can tell. Even when UNRRA had money in hand for food required re-quired (although some of the contributing con-tributing members are very slow to pay, the United States still owes a little less than half of its allotment allot-ment and authorization), it was impossible im-possible to get the combined food board, which decided who got what, to allot any to UNRRA until the armed forces, the domestic market, the lend-lease, and the liberated countries who had money to buy, got theirs. And even if the food was available, frequently there were no ships in which to transport it. That situation has changed. Food is now being delivered to Europe. By Christmas it will be moving at the rate of half a million tons a month. But the memory of past deficiencies de-ficiencies lingers and doubt as to future performance could easily be used as an excuse to defeat the measure unless one is really convinced con-vinced that UNRRA's job is so important im-portant it must succeed. And there we get down to the nub of the whole argument. For to agree with the thesis that UNRRA's objective is desirable de-sirable is to agree that the good of one is the good of all and the good of the other fellow is the good of the us "us" standing for the United States. It is easy to show that millions in Europe will starve this winter unless they get food from outside their own borders. It is easy to prove that in those countries which are UNRRA' a concern the ones which were invaded in-vaded and which cannot pay for food starvation will lead to disease, dis-ease, riots, revolt and death. And we know that under such conditions, nations turn to totalitarianism and when that fails, Jo chaos. We also know that unless we help-tide these people over, we cannot expect to sell them our surpluses because "you can't do business with a graveyard." Nevertheless the isolationist isola-tionist would respond, what of it? Let's stay in our own backyard. Therefore, the voter, weighing UNRRA's past errors with its future fu-ture potentialities, will vote for it only if he still believes that world co-operation is something worth taking tak-ing a risk for. So UNRRA becomes a test of how well this belief is standing the test of misunderstandings and disappointments disap-pointments oh the diplomatic front which we have faced in the past weeks. We hear a great deal about the difficulty of understanding the Japanese Japa-nese mind and many people have their fears, as to how we are going to get along in the years ahead dur ing which we will occupy the coun try and attempt a reconversion oi Japanese thinking as well as eco nomlc life. ' Recently I had a long converse tion with an officer who had inter viewed some of the more intell) gent Japanese officers captured i the Philippines just before the stir render. Several remarks of one o these men illustrated the difficulty o reaching the enemy mind. My friend asked the prisoner "What did you think of our propa ganda?" "It made us laugh," the Jap re plied. "Be specific," my friend said. "WeE, you sent us leaflets saylnr Surrender; come over to our line and receive plenty of hot food am cold water.' We laughed at that. W had plenty of cold water in th. mountains. What we wanted was ho water." Water, to a Jap, meant In thit case a bath. They bathe in very ho' water. That was what they wantec and couldn't get. To the American' water means, after the heat ol battle, first, a drink. |