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Show Nations Must Submerge Sovereignty for Peace By BAUKIIAGE ft'ni's Analytt and Commrnlutnr. WNU Service, 1616 Eye Street. N. W., Washington, D. C. HUNTER COLLEGE, THE BRONX. N. Y. These notes are being jutted down in the basement of a room that once sounded to the dull staccato-thud of rubber-soled gym shoes as the girls came tripping trip-ping downstairs from the floor above to scamper into the showers, show-ers, pull on their bobby socks and other strange accoutrements which distinguish the modern female collegiate. col-legiate. It is during a lull In the session of the security council of the United Nations. There are no bobby-socks bobby-socks present but there are some rather solemn-looking females here in the "press lounge" along with their not-quite-so-solemn male counterparts, coun-terparts, snatching a pause that is supposed to refresh. I hear the rapid flow of French, some gutteral Slavic, sing-song Chinese and liquid Spanish. In a corner is a television set which, at the moment, reveals re-veals America's representative, the white-haired, handsome Mr. Stettin-ius, Stettin-ius, scratching his left car. He is speaking and his words come over the loud speaker. The camera moves and we see the delegates one after another, some listening, some whispering for Stettinlus has stopped and the loudspeaker is translating his words into French. I have just gone over these notes and others that formed the basis of later broadcasts from the studio which looks down on the council chamber. I am seeking in them an answer to the question which has been asked of me many times since I have been here in New York, a question that perhaps you would ask, too, if we could reverse the sound waves and let the listener speak and the speaker listen. Is the United Nations really going go-ing to get anywhere? First, let me admit that as I write we are walking a tight-rope stretched between two crises, either of which might wreck us or might be forgotten by the time those lines reach the printed page. And, of course, the rork upon which the United Nations may flounder is the veto. Most people don't understand the veto. Briefly, it is the right of any of the Big Powers, the permanent members of the executive council, to say "no" to the discussion of any matter which said power doesn't want raised. Power Politic-Still Politic-Still in Force In other words "power politics" is still in force and the only advance we have made is that compromise, which is the basis of all democratic action is the only possible solution of controversial questions. The undemocratic un-democratic alternative is the use of power, which In this case may be exercised without the will of the majority. The right of the veto Is, as was brought out In a recent University of Chicago round-table discussion, feally the insistence on the expression of national sovereignty; sovereign-ty; the sovereign right of a nation, if it gets mad enough, to promulgate promul-gate the organized savagery of war. We can, it Is true, never hope for any permanent peace until we are willing to yield that sovereignty to a higher authority which expresses ex-presses the will of the majority of all peoples. The United Nations at present has not been granted that authority. But there is hope which I have watched grow at international proceedings pro-ceedings move forward under the impetus of a will to peace and the implementation of ever growing publicity which creates the understanding under-standing to bolster that will It Is this: as the United Nations continues con-tinues to discuss those matters which are not affected by the veto, as It deals with social and economic problems, as it plans to do, such strong public sentiment can be built up behind It that nationalistic world-minorities cannot stand up against It. There is that hope. There is another. an-other. Atomic energy. As Chairman Corbett of the department de-partment of political science of Yale university put it: "When It comes to that . . . (control (con-trol of atomic energy) ... I think that the discrepancy between the legal situation In the UN (he refers to the power of the veto and the nationalistic insistence on sovereignty) sov-ereignty) and the actual needs of International collaboration are going go-ing to become so glaring that we are going to have to make a direct di-rect attack upon this problem of the veto." The key word to that remark is "glaring." The "needs of International Interna-tional collaboration" must glare in the light of pitiless publicity. The light of understanding must be shed upon the truths of what another an-other war will mean and it must be more than light. Heat must be Incandcscense. World sentiment must rise to the degree at which it creates the energy necessary to bring action. Peace must become dynamic. Positive Thinking Of Youth Needed If you lean back in your seat here in this fabricated conference room of the security council of the United Nations, and forget you are just a reporter, you get an almost awesome awe-some feeling that you are witnessing witness-ing a major operation which will decide de-cide the life or death of some great and beloved person. It is all so new, so strange. So much depends on success. Not the life of a single person, but the lives and happiness of thousands. It is hard to convey the atmosphere atmos-phere of the tragic solemnity that him ii yupwyy .in.pn immnmm ( ' 7 I V.. ? f ! tWiai-iwto.ifli.sj- Cainera snaps Haukhuge at Hunter college with Iranian flag in background. surrounds this place when we strip it of its outward casualness. I hope that the importance of this part of the great experiment in creating cre-ating world sentiment against war is getting home to the people. I wonder how much of the significance sig-nificance of the part public opinion plays in the success of this effort was impressed on that gathering of students in Portland, Ore., early this month. In the first youth conference con-ference of its kind, representatives of 31 colleges in the northwestern states and British Columbia gathered gath-ered to discuss the control of atomic energy and preservation of peace; the promotion of social and economic econom-ic welfare; the promotion of the welfare wel-fare of backward peoples; the promotion pro-motion of world-wide human rights; and the establishment of effective means for the peaceful settlement settle-ment of International disputes. Delegates Dele-gates will carry back to their respective re-spective campuses resolutions the conference passed; the student bodies bod-ies will vote on them and thus provide pro-vide a poll of more than 30.000 "thinking youth"; many of them' veterans of this war, half of them 21 and voters the generation which must benefit or suffer from the results re-sults of efforts of the United Nations. Na-tions. This is a positive approach In contrast con-trast to the negative credo of pacifism paci-fism which has been taught in the past. Pacifism says PON'T FIGHT. Well, that's all right. If It's your religious conviction. But, when war arrives, conscientious objectors can't stop It. Terhaps they can stop the one AFTER that. But it's the next one we wnnt to prevent now. Fire prevention stops more fires thnn firemen can. Removing the firemen fire-men won't help. Somebody has to be put in their place. Let's hope the young people can carry back to their campuses the message General MncArthur gave to the world recently: that nations must yield their sovereign power to make war that sovereignty must rest in an international body, and Incidentally, if the people who write me asking what they can do to work for pence really mean it, they might orgnnlre elmilnr youth congresses con-gresses In their own communities. Get youth thinking they are the ones who hnve to do the fighting. |