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Show World Conferences Aid f Cs Q in Bettering Relations -;y ( H I -1"' ' Personal Contact Brings Parties Closer . Together, Churchill Says; UNRRA Good s Example of Friendly Cooperation. L ,-, - Ey BAL'KIIAGE Nf'ivi Annlyit and Commentator. WNU Service, Union Trust Building, Washington, I). C. The world has entered a period of international gatherings, the number num-ber and scope of which have never even been approached before in history. his-tory. On their success or failure depends de-pends the winning or the losing of the peace. In the fields and the factories of the United States were produced the materials whose weight in the balance bal-ance sealed the victory for the Allies. Al-lies. Now, will America be willing to contribute to the conferences which are struggling to deal with postwar problems that "town-meet-hig" spirit which has made our own "league" of states a success? Without With-out this help no trail to peace can be blazed. There was a moment in Quebec, last month, at the one gathering when press and radio stood face to face with Roosevelt and Churchill, when a human note entered the atmosphere at-mosphere that struck me forcefully. The prime minister was speaking about the speculation over the various va-rious persons who had been called Into the Quebec conference and concerning con-cerning whom there had been much peculation, not only Foreign Minister Min-ister Eden, but also Secretary of the Treasury Morgenthau. The prime minister developed a theme which the President has often used and which in both cases. I believe, be-lieve, represented the considered : opinion of men who had learned by experience. And that theme is that many difficult problems become simplified sim-plified when they are discussed face : to face. Mr. Churchill remarked it was hard to underestimate the in- : efficacy of the printed word (as compared com-pared to personal contact) and he also said that already a number of friendships had developed from An- i glo-American meetings which were I a decided asset to both nations from the diplomatic standpoint. i Individuals can learn to get on together especially when the goal ahead of them is something above and beyond their own personal desires. de-sires. UNRRA's Staff Pledged to Fairness I was discussing this very point recently re-cently with a member of the United Nations Rehabilitation and Relief administration. He believes firmly that the conferences of an international interna-tional nature already called, have for the most part shown a great enough degree of success to justify the hope for considerable progress toward world understanding. Some of the facts concerning UNRRA itself, not generally realized, real-ized, are worth presenting here because be-cause they seem to support this optimism. op-timism. UNRRA has just completed its ; second session in Montreal and I must say there was an air about that meeting which gave one a feeling feel-ing of the stability of the organization. organiza-tion. In the first place its director general, former Governor Lehman of New York, is so thoroughly absorbed ab-sorbed by his job and imbued with enthusiasm for it that his influence energizes the whole staff. This Is one of the intangible things about this international body which makes one have some faith in the ability of the peoples of different nationalities na-tionalities to get together to do things. Another thing, also more or less intangible but recognizeable as a force for unity, is the spirit of the UNRRA employees which is symbolized sym-bolized by the oath they all have to take. At this point let me point out that the employees of the organization organi-zation must not be confused with the 44 members of the council, UNRRA's policy making body. The council members are all plenipotentiaries plenipoten-tiaries representing their respective countries, just as members of congress con-gress represent different districts. But the employees, from the director di-rector general down, who are the employees of the 44 nations, take an international oath in which they swear they will serve all countries equally and will not allow national prejudice of any kind to enter into their decisions or their conduct. The result is an objective attitude which it is hard for a person naking no such conscious effort to attain, even to comprehend. I recall something similar on the part of members of the Belgian relief commission in the last war. Their ability to remain in occupied Belgian territory depended on demonstrating to the complete satisfaction of the German military commanders that they were neutral and thfrir conscious effort to act utterly ut-terly disinterested, brought about a really neutral viewpoint. Of course, this strictly non-partisan attitude is not, nor is it expected to be, adopted by the representatives representa-tives of the member nations, and the controversy which arose at the recent re-cent session concerning UNRRA's activity in former enemy territory was due to the play of emotions which takes place when hate has been nurtured for a long time, as the Axis nurtured it. According to the UNRRA rules, no relief can be administered ad-ministered in former enemy country coun-try unless a majority of the council so votes and if the enemy country pays for such services and supplies as it receives. It was natural that some of the nations which suffered as they did under the Nazi or Fascist heel, would be prejudiced. UNRRA Ready to Move Into Balkans S6 much for the solidity of UNRRA. It has only begun to func-.tion, func-.tion, of course, and its latest meeting meet-ing was the first when attention could be given to matters other than fundamental policies. It is now in operation and the number of technicians tech-nicians attending was greatly increased. in-creased. Meanwhile, however, UNRRA men are ready in Cairo, the moment the military is able to give the word, to move into Greece and Yugoslavia and first, assist the army relief work and then, when the army is ready to turn these functions over, take charge. Repatriation is a very important part of any European relief since millions of people have been evacuated evacu-ated or driven or have fled from their own homeland and are scattered scat-tered about the world. UNRRA has taken over the work of the Middle East Refugee relief and has charge of the placement and maintenance of 50,000 Greeks and Yugoslavs in Palestine Pal-estine and Egypt. It has a new camp located in Algeria Al-geria where the climate represents less of a change than the desert from the homeland of the refugees. The poor people suffer enough in morale, they are either women, children chil-dren or disabled men. not the ideal grouping for a cheerful society and life on a desert is not popular with many people even when they have congenial company. UNRRA's accomplishments so far. the excellent press it has had and the enthusiasm with which it has been received even the few unpleasant un-pleasant stories circulated about it all indicate that it is a going concern con-cern even though it is only intended to be a temporary one. We might go down the list of other conferences, past or pending, and report re-port a good deal of progress on most of them: the Bretton Woods Monetary Mone-tary conference, the one on food and agriculture, both resulted in the creation cre-ation of permanent organizations. A meeting of the ministers of education educa-tion of the United Nations held last April in London, I am told, will undoubtedly contribute to the promotion pro-motion of wider educational opportunities opportu-nities of education. A general economic conference, recently called by Secretary Hull, and one on aviation are yet to be proved. It is only when you get into realm of the military or the political that you begin to run into snags. It might be argued that the reason for this is that military and political politi-cal goals are purely selfish. Petroleum may be in continuous process of formation in the beds of gulfs and oceans, according to Professor Pro-fessor Denis L. Fox of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. He recently re-cently analyzed many samples of mud, some with an estimated age of 6,000 years, and found them well supplied with well-preserved pigmented pig-mented organic materials. He also found some of the muds inhabited by bacteria which are able to directly di-rectly synthesize petroleum. B R I E F S . . . by Baukhase A Tokyo radio program announced recently that "America is getting short of pilots" because "Americans "Ameri-cans are using many women pilots in the Pacific battles." The census bureau pictures the average American father in the United States as 44 years old, married, mar-ried, living with his wife and with one or two children. The Berlin radio has announced that the government will provide "generous" indemnification for all damage caused by enemy action and that "those who buy new furniture and household equipment will get paid immediately for whatever they cost." Previous German broadcasts have indicated that there is virtually virtu-ally no new furniture and household equipment in Germany. |