Show christmas this year vr ear finds World still without peace by BAUKHAGE news analyst and commentator washington I 1 ve been looking over old christmas cards christmas 1945 the message I 1 sent you that christmas came from amidst the rubble and the ruin of shattered where I 1 experienced the sad saadet det holy day season of my memory it was spent with the ugly symbols of man s inhumanity to man all about me the bitter negation of our saviour s teachings I 1 was in uniform the uniform of a non combatant correspondent but I 1 felt unhappy in it though I 1 had dreamed of wear mg ing what we called olive drab in 1918 once again my assimilated rank was unde served young men had fought a survived or fallen finishing a job that I 1 and my genera tion in high necked blouses and wrapped leggings had only started on that day christmas 1945 1 I wrote I 1 was as homesick as any young soldier in a lonely outpost with the threat of battle about him I 1 pictured my own hearthside my wife and the others about the happy tree my own tinseled packages unopened and my empty hands reaching out for them vainly over the oceans too wide to span everywhere I 1 looked that cold damp day I 1 saw not war but some thing more tragically eloquent stunned cramped souls in pinched bodies hurrying amidst the wreck age of a city which had seen the blossoming of art and handicraft in stone and canvas and parchment which had enriched the thes world tor for centuries now 1945 what Is seat of the trial of nazi war crun crim finals that was my christmas christmas the second one in seven years when one could really talk about peace on earth without shamed and downcast eyes that s what hat I 1 wrote in this column then and I 1 went on while armies struggled who could think of the message to the shepherds from the angel s chorus promising peace on earth for all men of good will there was indeed much to be thankful for and much to be hope ful about on christmas 1946 then came christmas 1947 I 1 was far away from fields whitened with snow no bright red of the holly berry instead the burn ing hibiscus and beyond it the feath ery tops of the royal palms the day started not with the creak of shoes over the frozen snow or a wind which checked mid vein the circling race of life blood to the sharpening face but with the soft lap of water against the prow of our little boat which lulled me to lazy reminiscence we slipped along the river and into the inlet high above coursed a flock of graceful never lighting man of war frigate b ads to see them so tar far inland said my nature wise companion meant a rough ocean these tireless creatures it seems prefer to hunt in the ocean unless the white caps are breaking too wildly out sweeps a fish hawk in close pursuit an eagle who prefers a pil meal to one he must work for the fish hawk darts ahead holding his dinner in his bill the eagle sweeps down but the kingfisher banks and turns sharply the big bomber must make a wide circle before it can change its direction on the straight course he gains but loses again at each turn this goes on until finally the eagle disgusted gives up the chase and the kingfisher fades fat meal in mouth to a tiny spot in the sky the men of war come back high above us even at his this d stance with their seven to eight foot wing spread there Is poetry of motion they 0 are gone and my eyes drop to the rushes A tranquil water turkey we slow down and pull in toward the shore close to an island swamp its edges laced thick with man groves those mysterious plants whose grim brown fingers clutch deep into the water as if they sought some invisible and ghoulish enemy in the depth of the water low tide leaves them skeleton bare the sun and part of the sky is overcast but the rest is robins egg blue and the water about it is tinted lilac trout begin to bite and the snook we are very busy for a while then the fish begin to elude me so I 1 take up the camera A stub born crane lures us on but always manages to hide behind the man groves out of focus one more cast castl A fine fat trout and its it s time to go in we push ba k through the twi light into the truck and we bounce back to a gay little tree with the familiar decorations on its branches branches which never knew the kiss of a snowflake although the spot where I 1 cut the pine tree the day before a sandy flat shone as white in the sunlight as a snowbank in maine A photograph could fool you people await peace on earth my thoughts t on the news that christmas a year ago but as I 1 look back over what david wills who was broadcasting in my place said I 1 read this line the collapse of the london conference of foreign mim ministers is a tangible result of the mis trust pervading the world broadcast wills for the con ference adjourned without hav ing taken those essential and decisive steps along the road of peace for which the people of the earth are waiting in an aguish I 1 the aftermath of that collapse is still with us and the path which the nations have trod since has led us to an uncertain peace at best on christmas eve a year ago the pope delivering his annual mes sage from the vatican spoke of a europe shivering and feverish from economic difficulties and so cial chaos he talked about the he the deliberate lie he sa d sadly had become an established weapon of international relations the lie of garbled word or fact part and parcel of the modern tech in the art of forming public opinion or controlling it and of mak ing it serve the political ends of those bent on winning at any cost the battle of ideologies that was a not too happy christ mas for all the world despite my selfish pleasures and perhaps yours too but if the past year has not greatly changed that picture it has changed it a little tor for the better I 1 has given us some satis fac tion to know that one idealistic concept has materialized we have successfully prevented the spread of the powers against which the christian world has been struggling the marshall plan so far has been a success between last christmas s and this we saw russia s cold war offensive stopped stopped at the adriatic stopped along the seme seine stopped in the low countries within that time the theory of an economic campaign moved from an idea to a blueprint to the active and effective european cooperation administration an ean chent business organization headed by an efficient businessman paul hoffman that is america americas s christmas gift to humanity 41 4 mk 0 N I 1 two of the world s architects for peace president truman and secretary of state marshall were the chief figures in the launching and find implementation of the marshal marshall plan to aid europe and curtail communism it was america americas s gift to the world in 1948 |